Biography
Julian Wild creates playful sculptures based on cartoon-like events. His sculptures contain narratives that reference the human condition. Actions like crushing and bending turn hard materials into semi-figurative forms that suggest states such as subjugation, bravery and exhaustion. Colour is central to his practice, working with a palette from the built environment that signify objects as diverse as a modernist sculpture to a JCB.
Julian Wild has held Solo exhibitions at Modern Forms, Gurr Johns, Leighton House Museum, Modern Art Oxford and William Benington Gallery whilst taking part in group exhibitions including Beyond Limits at Chatsworth House, Sculpture in the City, Canary Wharf, The Fine Art Society and V22 London.
He has completed Commissions for: The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail, The University of Oxford, Modern Forms, Fidelity lnvestments, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Crest Nicholson, Wyeth Europa, Schroders Investment Management, Radley College, Jerwood Sculpture Park, Sculpture in the Parklands in Ireland, Sir George Iacobescu, Cate Blanchett, The Lightbox Gallery and Canary Wharf Group.
In 2024 Wild attended a Thread Residency at The Albers Foundation in Senegal. He was awarded The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Arts club Trust Studio Bursary from 2009-2012. He won an individual Arts Council Grant in 2011, in 2005 he was a finalist in the Jerwood Sculpture Prize and won the Millfield Sculpture Prize in the same year.
Julian Wild was Vice-president of The Royal Society of Sculptors from 2015-2019. He was Sculpture Leader and Lecturer at The Art Academy London 2017-25.
He recently co-founded cement with Alison Hand, an art school and studio complex in Newhaven, East Sussex.