Happy Now
Curated by Darren Flook 96 Robert St, NW1 3QP, London, UK 25 October - 14 December 2025
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About Bill Woodrow
Bill Woodrow (b. 1948) is a sculptor who lives and works in Britain. He attended Winchester School of Art before moving to London to study sculpture at St Martin’s School of Art. He first received international critical attention in the early 1980s, in association with the New British Sculpture group. These ‘post-minimalist’ object-makers often used discarded and unconventional materials for their sculptures, reshaping and reconfiguring objects and introducing narrative elements.
Woodrow stood out from this group of artists for his extraordinary transformations of everyday domestic objects. Drawing templates onto the surfaces of metal objects such as empty baked bean cans, buckets, washing machines and car bonnets, he then cut them out, extending them into three dimensions to create surprising new object-appendages, such as musical instruments and animals.
In the later 1980s, Woodrow’s interest turned to bronze and making more elaborate sculptural ensembles. Works such as In Awe of the Pawnbroker (1994) and Regardless of History (2000) demonstrate an increased preoccupation with narrative and allegory, deploying sculpture to communicate stories about human existence and our place in the natural world. Such concerns continue to animate his sculptural imagination today, as we find Woodrow often turning to drawing and working on paper, as well as sculpture.
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Landscape into Sculpture
An exhibition at the University of Gloucestershire. 15 October to 26 November 2025 Monday to Friday 8am - 5pm.