Alison Wilding is known for her abstract sculptures, which embrace a wide range of materials and processes, on all scales from the handheld to the almost-monumental. Wilding studied at Nottingham College of Art from 1967 to 1968, Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, Bromley, Kent from 1968 to 1971 and subsequently at the Royal College of Art from 1971 to 1973. She came to prominence in the 1980s as one of a group of sculptors including Richard Deacon and Antony Gormley. Wilding’s first major solo exhibition was at the Serpentine Gallery in 1985, and Projects, her first international solo show, was held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1987. A retrospective exhibition entitled Alison Wilding: Immersion – Sculpture from Ten Years was held at the Tate Gallery, Liverpool in 1991.

Since then she has shown extensively throughout the UK and abroad and has been acquired into major public collections in the UK. Public commissions include Migrant (2004) for Snape Maltings, Shimmy (2013) at 10 New Burlington Street, and Herm (2018) for Rathbone Place. Still Water, a memorial to UK citizens affected by terrorism overseas, will be unveiled at the National Memorial Arboretum in May 2018. Wilding was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1988 and 1992 and was elected to the RA in 1999. Awards include a Henry Moore fellowship at the British School at Rome (1998) Joanna Drew Travel Bursary (2007), Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award (2008) and Bryan Robertson Award (2012). A monograph to be published in 2018 will coincide with an exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion.