Michael Nelson (born 20 August 1967) is a contemporary British

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...

ist. He represented Britain at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in 2011. Nelson has twice been nominated for the

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...

: first in 2001 (that year the prize was won by

Martin Creed Martin Creed (born 21 October 1968) is a British artist, composer and performer. He won the Turner Prize in 2001 for exhibitions during the preceding year, with the jury praising his audacity for exhibiting a single installation, '' Work No. 2 ...

), and again in 2007 (when the winner was

Mark Wallinger Mark Wallinger (born 25 May 1959) is a British artist. Having previously been nominated for the Turner Prize in 1995, he won in 2007 for his installation ''State Britain''. His work ''Ecce Homo'' (1999–2000) was the first piece to occupy the ...

Education

Nelson studied at

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

from 1986–1990 for a BA Fine Art. From 1992 to 1993 he studied at

Chelsea College of Art and Design Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation. It offers further and higher educat ...

for an MA Sculpture.

Working practice

Nelson's installations always only exist for the time period of the exhibition which they were made for. They are extended

labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the ...

s, which the viewer is free to find their own way through, and in which the locations of the exit and entrance are often difficult to determine. His "The Deliverance and the Patience" in a former brewery on the

Giudecca Giudecca (; vec, Zueca) is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, in northern Italy. It is part of the ''sestiere'' of Dorsoduro and is a locality of the ''comune'' of Venice. Geography Giudecca lies immediately south of the central islands of Ven ...

was in the 2001

. In September 2007, his exhibition ''A Psychic Vacuum'' was held in the old Essex Street Market, New York. Essays on Nelson's projects, '24A Orwell Street King's Cross Sydney' and 'The Deliverance and the Patience' have been written by artist/curator Richard Grayson. His major installation ''The Coral Reef'' (2000), was on display at

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

until the end of 2011. It consists of fifteen rooms and a warren of corridors. This work and its showing at

Matt's Gallery Matt's Gallery is a contemporary art gallery currently located in Nine Elms at 6 Charles Clowes Walk, London, SW11 7AN. Its director, Robin Klassnik OBE, opened the gallery in 1979 in his studio on Martello Street, before moving premises to Coppe ...

earned him his 2001

nomination. His piece ''Untitled (public sculpture for a redundant space)'' won the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

''Wollaston Award'' in 2018, for most distinguished work in the Summer Exhibition. In 2019, from March to October, he transformed the Duveen Galleries in

with his new installation called 'The Asset Strippers', a collection of objects from post-war Britain that framed his childhood. His work has been collected by

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Roy ...

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

Poju Zabludowicz Chaim "Poju" Zabludowicz (born 6 April 1953) is a Finnish-born British billionaire businessman, art collector and philanthropist.Midgley, Dominic (5 March 2010)"FINN CITY..." ''Highbeam Business'' (London). Retrieved 23 June 2013. Early life a ...

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

MAMCO The MAMCO () is the contemporary art museum of Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of ...

and

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö in t ...

Notes and references

External links

Malmö Konsthall: Mike Nelson, 2012303 Gallery: Mike Nelson
(

303 Gallery 303 Gallery is an art gallery in Manhattan, New York. It was established in 1984 by owner and director Lisa Spellman, described by art critic Jerry Saltz as "one of the greatest New York gallerists of our time". The gallery hosts contemporary works ...

)
Matt's Gallery: Mike NelsonGalleria Franco Noero: Mike NelsonCreative Time: Mike Nelson, 2007Frieze Art Fair: Mike Nelson commission, 2006Mike Nelson's ''A Psychic Vacuum'' in New York City, September 2007Kristin M. Jones, Review of ''A Psychic Vacuum'', ''Frieze'', November-December 2011Michele Robecchi, Interview with Mike Nelson, ''Flash Art'', October 2008
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080307121402/http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/mike_nelson/ Dan Fox, Review of Modern Art Oxford show, ''Frieze'', September 2004br>Adrian Searle, Review of Modern Art Oxford show, ''Guardian'', 11 May 2004

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Mike Living people British conceptual artists British installation artists Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts People educated at Loughborough Grammar School 1967 births English contemporary artists Royal Academicians

Education

Working practice

See also

Notes and references

External links