Julian Wild

Born in 1973, Julian Wild is the youngest artist in the exhibition. Having completed a Fine Arts Degree at Kingston University in 1995 Wild went to work for Damien Hirst. It was during these years that Wild began to experiment with his own practice and form and started to cultivate an idiosyncratic style. After leaving Hirst's studio, Wild began to work independently and quickly became fascinated by the semiotics of materials – seeing the medium as the focal point of a sculpture rather than the form that it took.

Out of this preoccupation, Wild has constructed a series of works entitled Systems. The work are concerned primarily with deconstructing the way in which seemingly non-sculptural materials such as plumbing tube and aluminium piping can be used to create insightful sculpture. In mathematics and science, systems are used to define and order chaos through a common thread. In System 19, Wild explores the idea by using overlapping aluminium tubes, seemingly welding at random, however, on closer inspection it becomes clear that there is an overall design governing the form and forcing it into the flattened sphere. Like other post-modern sculptors in this show Wild’s work pays homage to a former period of creation. The work of Anthony Caro in the 1960s – bold colours and architectural forms distorted from their original purpose – are often referred to in Wild’s œuvre.

Over the last decade Wild received increasing recognition. In 2005 he won the Millfield Sculptural award and was shortlisted for the Jerwood Award for Sculpture. More recently Wild won the fiercely competitive Kensington and Chelsea Arts Bursary which has afforded him the opportunity to locate his studio in central London, where he has also set up the Forum for Artists in Kensington and Chelsea (FACK), which encourages local artists to experiment with new artistic ideas and materials. Wild has also exhibited at Burghley House, Sculpture in the Parklands and the Saatchi Gallery.