Nick Hornby (b. 1980) is a British artist living and working in London. Hornby studied at Slade School of Art and Chelsea College of Art. His work has been exhibited at Tate Britain, Southbank Centre London, Leighton House London, CASS Sculpture Foundation, Glyndebourne, Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, Museum of Arts and Design New York and Poznan Biennale, Poland. Residencies include Outset (Israel), Eyebeam (New York), and awards include the UAL Sculpture Prize. His work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Frieze, Artforum, The Art Newspaper, The FT, and featured in Architectural Digest and Sculpture Magazine.
Tell us about you as an artist?
I’m a sculptor and I live and work in London - known for making for large scale work in bronze, steel, and marble that combine the digital and the traditional.
How did you start?
I studied at Slade School of Art and Chelsea College of Art - starting with clay, then video, then programming, then music, then semiotics then !nally sculpture... where I’m staying.
Describe your art.
It is the physical meeting of historical cri- tique, semiotics and digital technology; behind hand-crafted sculp- tures of marble, resin or bronze are computer-generated models, expanding shapes, silhouettes and shadows. Or you could say I mix, re-hash, sample - liquify, blend and blur.
What are you working on at the moment?
I am currently working on a combination of objects and photography. This work started out through a collaboration with the incredible photogra- pher Louie Banks (@louiebanksshoots). We produced with a series of meta-cubist busts using portraits that Louie has taken. Right now one of them is on display at the Royal Academy as part of their Summer Exhibition - It is the !rst time we’re unveiling this collaboration in London. The result is a glossy liquid portrait bust that starts with a “tribrid” of marble portraits from 1820s, and becomes lique!ed into a screen-like object - part historic and part technological. I’ve found the collaboration incredible - Louie is a genius. The model is Jazzelle Zanaughtti @uglyworldwide - described by I-D as “gender-bending, gold-grilled model slaying on instagram” with a “sass-!lled Detroit voice” [...] “As a mixed-race female with a quirky androgynous style composed of puer jackets, gold grills, and drawn-on hearts for eye- brows, Jazzelle sits right in the centre of fashion’s rising representations of racial diversity and queer gender expression.” She is wearing Vivienne Westwood from Alexander Furys Archive collection. The corset is decorated by the work of Francois Boucher (1703 – 1770), a Rococo-era artist known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, allegories, and pastoral scenes.
What inspires you as an artist?
My work is very inspired by art history - but recently things have shifted and its become very personal and autobiographical. I love to collaborate with other art- ists and craftsman (and women): I work with foundries on the bronze works and steel fabricators - whose traditional skills I greatly value. And then other artists like Louie - and Sinta Tantra (@sintatantra)
What’s your future plan and what about your dreams?
Dreams are great - but I prefer real materials things. I love facing the challenges of materials, of gravity... of mortality, of human limitation. My recent public commission, Twofold, is made of very thin steel that looks like a ribbon held in space. The sketch was easy but it was the engineering and then actually realising the work was challenging and fascinating. It stands 5m tall and weighs 2.5 tonnes - towering over your head, it feels otherworldly.
Nick Hornby is a sculptor based in London. From November 2020 to March 2021 he is due to stage his !rst solo exhibition in a public institution at MOSTYN in Llandudno, Wales, curated by the director, Alfredo Cramerotti. Please check the gallery’s website for updates on opening dates and times. mos- tyn.org. The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is open until 3rd January 2021.
