Richard Wilson

About

Richard Wilson has been described as Britain?s most famous installation artist. He is perhaps best known as the man who sold Charles Saatchi a thousand gallons of used sump oil, and, having represented Britain at the Sydney, Sao Paulo and Venice Biennales and made major museum shows and public works in countries such as Mexico, USA, Italy, Japan and Croatia, his international reputation precedes him. This year Wilson gave us Turning The Place Over, an astonishing architectural intervention for Liverpool's year as European City of Culture 2008. In the midst of this it is all too easy to forget that Wilson comes from a strong sculptural tradition, and that drawing, as well as filmmaking, is central to his practice.

It is over 20 years since Wilson showed 20:50 at the Royal Scottish Academy during the 1987 Edinburgh Festival. The Grey Gallery once again takes up temporary residency in a derelict warehouse, courtesy of Scotland?s oldest and largest auction house, Lyon and Turnbull. This exhibition presents an insight into the rudiments of Wilson?s creative process. We present a selection of works on paper, a continuous tape loop of four films ? Turning The Place Over, Meter?s Running, Break Neck Speed and Butterfly - and, unusually for this artist, a free-standing piece of sculpture.

Richard Wilson has twice been nominated for the Turner Prize and was awarded the DAAD Fellowship in Berlin 1992/93. In 2006 Wilson was made a Royal Academician.