WILLOW WINSTON is an internationally recognised artist based in the U.K. Her visual arts practice is diverse and her technical knowledge wide-ranging.
Her art has been exhibited in America and the U.K. and is in collections and museums, including the V&A, on both sides of the Atlantic. Her woodengravings illustrate the ‘Tao te Ching’, first published by Unwin Paperbacks in 1982 [reprinted four times 1984-89], and poetry books from the Menard Press. Two decades of relatively traditional painting and printmaking, concurrent with a decade of experimental theatre design, form the foundations of her mature work. During the 1980s she regularly designed for theatre in Spain as well as designing for Theatre de Complicité [now Complicité] in the U.K. This led to her focus on innovative installation art and constructivist sculpture during the following three decades.
The evolution of her work was accelerated by her acquisition in 2000 of a derelict warehouse in South-East London which she rebuilt into her live-work studio, enabling her to create much larger sculpture than before. The award of a Fellowship at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, USA, in 2003 helped to consolidate her empirical methods of experiment with materials to explore structures rooted in mathematical form, pathways to deep levels of connection with the nature of the Cosmos. `
She has collaborated with composers to create audio-visual installations and performance sculpture and with other artists/designers on interactive public art, including several large-scale pieces for the Southbank Centre and at Somerset House. An additional inventive area has been her creation of numerous pieces of book art which led into her current metal sculpture practice, particularly the hinged forms which extend her earlier contribution to participatory art combined with deepening mathematical concept.
Willow Winston took a B.A. in Fine Art/Painting and Post Graduate Studies in Printmaking at the Central School of Art & Design in the 1970s where her main tutors were Cecil Collins and Norman Ackroyd. She has taught in several American Universities and at Central Saint Martins and the Royal Academy Schools in the U.K. as well as in adult education and schools. In 2016 she was elected Member of the Royal Society of Sculptors and in 2021 she was appointed Patron of Centrepieces Art Project for Mental Health.
Her art has been exhibited in America and the U.K. and is in collections and museums, including the V&A, on both sides of the Atlantic. Her woodengravings illustrate the ‘Tao te Ching’, first published by Unwin Paperbacks in 1982 [reprinted four times 1984-89], and poetry books from the Menard Press. Two decades of relatively traditional painting and printmaking, concurrent with a decade of experimental theatre design, form the foundations of her mature work. During the 1980s she regularly designed for theatre in Spain as well as designing for Theatre de Complicité [now Complicité] in the U.K. This led to her focus on innovative installation art and constructivist sculpture during the following three decades.
The evolution of her work was accelerated by her acquisition in 2000 of a derelict warehouse in South-East London which she rebuilt into her live-work studio, enabling her to create much larger sculpture than before. The award of a Fellowship at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, USA, in 2003 helped to consolidate her empirical methods of experiment with materials to explore structures rooted in mathematical form, pathways to deep levels of connection with the nature of the Cosmos. `
She has collaborated with composers to create audio-visual installations and performance sculpture and with other artists/designers on interactive public art, including several large-scale pieces for the Southbank Centre and at Somerset House. An additional inventive area has been her creation of numerous pieces of book art which led into her current metal sculpture practice, particularly the hinged forms which extend her earlier contribution to participatory art combined with deepening mathematical concept.
Willow Winston took a B.A. in Fine Art/Painting and Post Graduate Studies in Printmaking at the Central School of Art & Design in the 1970s where her main tutors were Cecil Collins and Norman Ackroyd. She has taught in several American Universities and at Central Saint Martins and the Royal Academy Schools in the U.K. as well as in adult education and schools. In 2016 she was elected Member of the Royal Society of Sculptors and in 2021 she was appointed Patron of Centrepieces Art Project for Mental Health.