Bill Woodrow RA

Born: 1 November 1948 near Henley, Oxfordshire, England
Elected RA: 28 May 2002
Category of Membership: Sculptor

Bill Woodrow RA, Beekeeper and Swarm Bill Woodrow studied at Winchester School of Arts from 1967 to 1968 and at St. Martin’s School of Art, London from 1968 to 1971 before spending one year at Chelsea School of Art, London from 1971 to 1972. His first solo exhibition was at the Whitechapel Gallery, London in 1972. In the early 1980s he represented Britain at Biennales in Sydney (1982), Paris (1982, 1985) and Sâo Paulo (1983). In 1986 he was a finalist in the Turner Prize at the Tate Gallery, London.

Woodrow’s work is characterised by his use of domestic and urban objects to make sculptures in which the original identity of his materials is still evident. Since the late 1980s he has expanded his range of materials to include welded steel and cast bronze.

Read an interview with Bill Woodrow in RA Magazine Summer 2007

Recent solo exhibitions
2012 Sabine Wachters Fine Arts, Knokke, Belgium
Lullin + Ferrari, Zürich, Switzerland
2011 Waddington Galleries, London
2007 Jesus College, Cambridge
The Great Hall, Winchester
2004 New Art Centre Sculpture Park and Gallery, Roche Court, Salisbury, Wiltshire
2002 Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
2001 South London Gallery, London/Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield
2000 Monographic room, Tate Modern, London
Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square, London
1997 Mestna Gallerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia
1996 Tate Gallery, London/Institut Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt, Germany
1995 Camden Arts Centre, London/Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston
1993 Chisenhale Gallery, London/Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth
1991 XXI Sâo Paulo Bienal, Brazil
1989 Imperial War Museum, London
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Le Havre/Musée des Beaux-Arts, Calais, France
1986 Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh/Kunstverein, Munich, Germany
1985 La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA, USA
Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
1983 Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
1972 Whitechapel Art Gallery, London

Public collections
Arts Council of England
British Council
British Library, London
British Museum, London
Imperial War Museum, London
Government Art Collection
Tate Gallery, London
Cecil Higgins Art Gallery and Museum, Bedford
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Leeds City Art Galleries
Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
Southampton Art Gallery
University of Warwick
Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp, Belgium
Musée d'Art Contemporain, Montréal, Canada
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Canada
Ville d’Angers, France
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Calais, France
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Chambery, France
FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon, France
FRAC Haute-Normandie, France
FRAC Picardie, Amiens, France
FRAC Rhône-Alpes, Lyon, France
Musée de Toulon, France
Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland
Yongsan Family Park, Yongsan-Gu, Seoul, Korea
Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico
Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Netherlands
Aukland City Art Gallery, New Zealand
National Gallery of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal
Malmö Konsthall, Sweden
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
Indianapolis Museum, USA
Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, USA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, USA

Publications
Bill Woodrow: Sculpture 1980-86, Lynne Cooke, Fruitmarket Gallery, 1986
Bill Woodrow: Beaver, Bomb and Fossil, David Elliot, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 1983
Bill Woodrow: About This Axis: Drawings 1990-1995, Mark Leahy, Camden Arts Centre, 1995
In the Awe of the Pawnbroker: Bill Woodrow, John Roberts, Oriel Board Books, 1995
Bill Woodrow: Fools Gold, John Roberts, Tate Publishing, 1996

Contact details for further information
Email membershipoffice@royalacademy.org.uk

• Royal Academy of Arts