Biography

In 1982 John Atkin was invited to meet Henry Moore at his studios in Much Hadham. Because of this meeting, Moore agreed to assist Atkin with his plans for postgraduate study. Atkin went on to study Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, (under Prof. Phillip King), in London between 1982 and 1985. He was awarded the Drawing Prize in 1985 and began to prepare new work for his first two solo shows. The first, Strange Meeting, at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne and later in London at the Juda Rowan Gallery.

From 1985 to 1986 Atkin was awarded the prestigious Stanley Picker Fellowship in Sculpture at Kingston upon Thames Polytechnic. Since 1986, Atkin has exhibited extensively in England, Europe, Australia and the United States, with Awards from the British Council and Australia Council. This culminated in a major exhibition of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne, (formerly Heide Park and Art Gallery). Other solo exhibitions of his work have taken place at the Rex Irwin Gallery, Sydney and the Jam Factory Gallery, Adelaide.

In 1998 he was invited to exhibit a series of new wall based constructions at Hartford University, Connecticut. This exhibition and subsequent series of lectures stimulated a great deal of critical interest in his work, which resulted in exhibitions in Kansas City, Boston, Boise, Philadelphia, Chicago, Sculpturesite, San Francisco, New York and also in Louisiana at the New Orleans Museum of Art, The British Council, the Royal College of Art, Loughborough University and most recently, the Art and Humanities Research Council, generously supported these exhibitions.



His work has also been exhibited and supported by The Cass Sculpture Foundation, UK and at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice, Italy, Thinking Big- New Concepts in British Contemporary Art.

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Please click here to watch John Atkin’s video of making Strange Meeting.

Recent publications on Atkins’ output focus on the notion of “industrial archaeology” and how this research can be discreetly deployed within the contemporary urban landscape. These publications include The Navigator ISBN 0-906688-40-X; Scorched Earth ISBN 1-900856-41-7; Distant Voices ISBN 1-900856-30-1; Cut, ISBN1-901560 -65 -1; The Made and The Unmade ISBN 0-9704605-0-3

Stone Yard in China

In addition, Atkin was invited to present the keynote paper at the Sculpture by the Sea Symposium at the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, Australia. At the same time he also exhibited a new, major sculpture, at the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition and at Soho Galleries, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

John Atkin working on Strange Meeting, October 2007, at FX Stone in Beijing. Picture by Sally Liu

John Atkin was recently commissioned by the Beijing Municipal Government, to make a new sculpture for Olympic Park in Beijing. This 27-ton marble & granite artwork will form part of an impressive exhibition of twenty-six artists selected from a global application of 2,600 people. He is the only British representative. His sculpture “Strange Meeting” has been sited since July 2008 adjacent to the major architectural landmarks of the Olympic Games.

Atkin’s research interest lies in the interaction of people with artworks that change a space into a place. In so doing the community secures a landmark for the area and a meeting point for all generations and cultures. He is currently completing a series of innovative artworks for Kent County Council, where he is Lead Artist for their ground breaking Breaking Boundaries “shared space” highways project. This entails working alongside Landscape Architects and Engineers to complete a range of highway structures, (such as roundabouts, terracing and street furniture), that reflect on Ashford’s cultural heritage within a contemporary context.

Atkin has also been asked to make a new landmark sculpture for Fillmore Plaza in San Francisco. Fillmore is the historic home of West Coast Jazz and his artwork will be a signature piece for the area that will also include street furniture, designed by Atkin in collaboration with AXIS Architects, San Francisco.

Publications

• The Navigator, ISBN 0-906688-40-X
• Scorched Earth, ISBN 1-900856-41-7
• Distant Voices, ISBN 1-900856-30-1
• Cut, The Made and the Unmade, ISBN 0-9704605-0-3
• Cut, ISBN 1 901560 65 1
  

Big pictures:
1. The evening pictures by Michael Suh
2. John Atkin and Mr Chen (FX Stone) standing side by side in his factory.