Corin Johnson Artist's Statement and Bio

Short Bio Born in 1969 , artist Corin Johnson began sculpting soon after leaving school. As well as working with a variety of artists he worked as a sculptor / carvers apprentice and later attended Art School in Kennington, and through going to the art school he met many inspiring people including the art critic David Sylvester and practicing artists such as Euan Uglow , Craigie Atchison and Peter Snow who encouraged him and championed his work. His work has been included in exhibitions at the Tate modern , Vigo gallery, the London art fair , Pangolin ,The SNOW gallery, the Arts centre in Melbourne ( the show travelled to Sydney and Canberra ) etc and has been featured in publications and most of the national News papers ( including the Times and the Sun ). One of his sculptures was made a the request of Marcus Harvey for a show he was curating called 2 and a half dimensions and he was approached by the artist Paul Noble to create several groups of maquettes and carved marble " Turd " sculptures; some of which where shown in the Tate Britain as part of the Turner prize exhibition; others were shown at Gagosian and Boijmans , Rotterdam . He has also been commissioned by or collaborated with; Edmund de Waal , Charles Spenser, Ptolemy Dean , Grace Jones , Nick Cave , Westminster Abbey, Oxford and Cambridge universities, the National Trust , English Heritage and many local authorities including Lambeth council etc. He worked to produce the Lady Diana memorial at Althorpe and a memorial to Harold Wilson at Westminster Abbey , as well as two lifesized figures in stone on the west front there. Corin has also taught sculpture both in London and in China and is a judge/ selector for the queens charity QEST which provides grants for creatives and makers .

Artists Statement. "I started drawing as a boy but discovered I have an aptitude for it when I was studying for O levels. My tastes in art are extremely broad: I particularly like Egyptian art ,German Expressionism , Religious art ,Gothic and Baroque sculpture , outsider and Shamanistic art and all manner of contemporary work. The natural world is very important to me and I am drawn to working with natural materials like clay ,plaster , stone , marble and wood .I sometimes like to use colour too. Sometimes I use materials in a way they were used in ancient times other times I take a more modern approach .A lot of my pieces are figurative. I like to sometimes work from life and have a model , but other times I work purely from my imagination .I like representing animals too. Often I will sketch an idea , then I may produce a maquette to work from ,or sometimes I will simply work directly on the sculpture with little or no reference .That can largely depend on whether there is a brief for a commission or not. I do like a lot of sacred art from all faiths / backgrounds and I like to try and imbue my work with a spirit of life.