John Newling

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John Newling (born 1952) is an artist and educator living and working in Nottingham in the UK. His work reflects his interests in ecology and the natural world, as well as social and economic systems, and includes sculpture, painting, installation and performance works.

John Newling in his Nottingham Studio

Biography

Newling was born in the Handsworth area of Birmingham, West Midlands, in 1952.

After completing a Foundation art course in Birmingham, he undertook a BA in Fine Art at North Staffordshire Polytechnic (1972–1974) and an MA at Chelsea School of Art (1975). In 1979 he was awarded an MPhil in the area of fine art practice from Wolverhampton University.

Newling has taught on fine art programmes both in the UK and internationally. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Installation Art at Nottingham Trent University where he acted as a part-time lecturer in Visual and Performing Arts between 1981 and 2009.

Work

Pinot Noir grape vines being grown hydroponically for John Newling's work 'Chatham Vines', 2004

John Newling’s art develops ideas from Conceptual Art, Land Art and Arte Povera – movements occurring during the 1960s that placed emphasis on the concept, process and site of the work. In the late 1970s, ecology, the environment and our relationship to it became a chief concern of his work. His work includes activities such as making compost and growing plants, as well as using organic materials directly in his sculptures and drawings. A long-time collaborator and admirer, Richard Davey, stated in his introduction to the first substantial overview of Newling’s work titled Spinning (2013) that: "despite the strong theoretical and conceptual framework that underpins them, his [Newling’s] works remain fundamentally sculptural and visual. He deliberately creates forms that reflect the ideas contained within them and seeks to make his works as beautiful as possible."

In 2018, Newling published Dear Nature, a collection of his letters written to nature over 81 consecutive days. Themes in the book include the history of agriculture, religion, economics, and grief regarding human-inflicted damage to the environment. The book was designed and published in partnership with Beam Editions. A new edition was published in 2020 following a kickstarter campaign.

Interactions with language and literature permeate much of Newling's work. This includes making soil from books and texts. For example with Eliot's Soil (2017) he shredded 1000 copies of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land to create compost composed of approximately 80% paper from the poem and the remainder from his own household waste. This soil was then used to create paper for another work Eliot's Note books (2017). Some of the paper spontaneously germinated residual seeds which grew from it and which the critic Karen Parker wrote "(stood for) the essential triumph nature has. This insistence for re-growth and rejuvenation is the surety of hope for the future.  Newling’s musings do call us to action and after outlining how the world came to be in the position it is, the possibility of renewal is offered." In another work, Newling used the visual form of leaves to generate an alphabet as part of a commission by Nymans Gardens for which he used cuttings from the National Trust garden. The work was published in Nymans Language (2016). He later used this typographic form to translate letters from Dear Nature for his 2020 exhibition at Ikon Gallery and made it a downloadable font.

Selected solo exhibitions

• 2020 Tillage, Exhibition/installation, Ditchling Museum, UK
• 2020 Dear Nature, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
• 2017 A Language from the Garden, commissioned by the National Trust for Nymans gardens, West Sussex, UK
• 2016 Plant Culture, Arts council collection exhibition, commissioned to make a new work Birches and Berries, Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester, UK
• 2015 Map of the last Islands, Woodend Barn, Banchory, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
• 2014 Generosity Plates, Exhibition/installation, Wellcome Collection, London, UK
• 2013 Stall of Gathered Economies, School House Gallery, York, UK
• 2013 Ecologies of Value, a retrospective of works from 1979–2012, curated by Alex Farquharson and Abby Spinks, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK
• 2012 Lungs, invited artist for Contexts 2012 - The 2nd Sokolowsko Festival of Ephemeral Art, Sokolowsko, Poland
• 2010 Singing Uncertainty, a live choral work. The singing of questions written in hymns, St Mary’s Church, Nottingham, UK
• 2009 - 2010 The Clearing The first phase of The Clearing took place in a laboratory housed in BioCity Nottingham with research on the growing of nine beech trees. The project culminated in the permanent planting out of the 9 beech trees in 2010 UK. A commissioned project by Hinterland
• 2008 Generosity Plates, installation, commissioned by the Wellcome Collection, London, UK
• 2008–2009 The Noah Laboratory, commissioned through the international residency program at The Collection Archived 2022-08-08 at the Wayback Machine, Lincoln, UK
• 2005 Mine, installation, project, the Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, USA; single version, St Mary Woolnoth, London, UK
• 2004 Stamping Uncertainty, commissioned for the Chapter house Canterbury Cathedral, UK
• 2004–2006 Chatham Vines, commissioned project, St John's Church Chatham, Kent, UK
• 2002–2003 Currency and Belief, ‘A retrospective’ , Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK
• 2001 1.0, HM Prison Stafford, Staffordshire, UK
• 2000 Immanent, temporary installation, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
• 1998 Crossing, temporary installation, commissioned by: The Contemporary Arts Society, The Economist Plaza, London, UK
• 1998 Physics of Place, Nottingham Castle, UK, commissioned by Arts Council England/National Lottery
• 1998 Weight, temporary installation, The Turnpike, Leigh, UK, commissioned by Robert Hopper on behalf of Art Transpennine
• 1996 Mad Hatter, temporary installation, Temple Bar, Dublin, Ireland, commissioned by Temple Bar Developments of The Office of Public Works
• 1995 Currency and Belief, mid-career retrospective, Corner House Gallery, Manchester, UK
• 1995 Exchange, performance, Chapel at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), commissioned by Artist Work Programme (AWP) at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
• 1994 Growing Support: Walking Stick Cabbages, commissioned by Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
• 1994 Skeleton, temporary installation, All Saints' Church, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, commissioned by Locus +
• 1991 Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, Old Market Square, Nottingham, UK, commissioned by Nottingham Arts Festival
• 1991 New Architecture Sculpture, Long Row Gallery, Nottingham, UK, commissioned by Angel Row Gallery
• 1991 Lost, installation, Bonington Gallery, NTU, Nottingham, UK, commissioned by The Bonington Gallery with support from the Henry Moore Trust
• 1990 Filters, temporary installation, The Henry Moore Studio, Dean Clough, Halifax, UK, commissioned by The Henry Moore Trust
• 1990 New Sculpture, Artsite Gallery, Bath, UK
• 1989 Orchard Gallery, Derry, Northern Ireland, UK
• 1988 Recent Sculpture, Dean Clough Industrial Estate, Halifax, UK
• 1988 Edward Totah Gallery, London, UK
• 1988 Sculpture, Krefelder Kunstverein, Krefeld, Germany. Invited as British representative in the Krefeld International Arts Festival
• 1987 Splitting the Nature and other works, Jollenbeck Gallery, Cologne, Germany
• 1987 New Sculpture, Edward Totah Gallery, London, UK
• 1984 New Sculpture, State, Church and other works, The Midland Group, Nottingham, UK
• 1983 New Works, Ian Birksted Gallery, London, UK
• 1983 Working Drawings, Mineta Move Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
• 1980 Seven Trestles, The Midland Group, Nottingham, UK
• 1979 The Nine Twists of Nature, Holt Street Gallery, Birmingham Arts Lab, Birmingham, UK

Selected group exhibitions

• 2020 Received Wisdom, Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, Arts council, national partner exhibition
• 2018–2019 Criminal Ornamentation, curated by Yinka Shonibare CBE from the arts council collection, Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester, UK, 2018; Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, UK, 2019; Longside Gallery, Wakefield, UK, 2019; Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton, UK, 2019
• 2018 Journeys with ‘The Waste Land’, Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK; Coventry Cathedral and Herbert gallery, Coventry, UK
• 2018 Cultivation: Points of Vantage, Hestercombe Gallery, Taunton, UK
• 2013–2014 One Foot in the Real World, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin, Ireland
• 2005 Happiness is not a right, performance and installation, Cork, Ireland. European Capital of Culture
• 2004 International Environmental Artists Exhibition, Selected Public Commissions, Bradley University, Ohio, USA
• 1982 Art into the 80’s, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK. Touring to the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edin-burgh, UK

Selected public commissions

• 2019 The Making of Landscapes, exhibition curated by Julie Faitot and Alice Mallet, La Galerie Duchamp, France. Commissioned residency
• 2018–2019 Trying to find where here is, Warwick art collection commission, UK. Installation of the permanent work Our shadows alone touched trying to find where here is
• 2017 Be Kind, Be Needed, Be Loved, final works of a 3-year residency at The Barn, Banchory, permanently sited in late 2017
• 2013 Hedley Street: Notions of Value - ‘know you are loved’, a project by curator Kate Stoddart & John Newling together with Sherwood Rise Residents Association, Nottingham, UK
• 2013 Market of Hidden Labours, commissioned by York City Council, York, UK
• 2013 Common Values, commissioned by Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK
• 2011 The Miracle Trees, commissioned installation at Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK
• 2009 What We Do to Make Ourselves Feel Better, the penultimate public phase of the Wellcome Collection’s commissioned project Make a Piano in Spain, Wellcome Collection
• 2006–2007 The Preston Market Mystery Project, the ‘Here + Now’ commissioning group in conjunction with the Harris Museum, Preston, UK
• 2006 Westonbirt Wishes, 3 phase commissioned project for Westonbirt National Arboretum, UK
• 2002 Prayer Room, commissioned permanent work for Worcester Acute Hospital, UK
• 2000 Aperture, installation commissioned by Royal Mail, Royal Mail Sorting Centre, Birmingham, UK
• 1998 Duration of A Wish, commissioned by B.A.A. Art Programme, World Business Centre, Heathrow Airport, UK
• 1994 Mould, permanent sculpture commissioned by Inland Revenue / Public Art Development Trust, Inland Revenue, Nottingham, UK
• 1985 Newling was the first Fulbright Program fellow in visual arts. Temporary works and public transactions made in numerous sites, including hotel rooms, a tourist souvenir stall, various streets, burnt-out cars, car parks and other spaces as places. Installations made in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC and New York, USA

Collections

Newling's works feature in international public collections including Nottingham Castle Collection; Arts Council Collection; Wellcome Collection; British Arts Council Collection; The Garman Ryan Collection.

Awards

Since 1983, when he was awarded the first Fulbright fellowship in Visual Arts, Newling has been the recipient of numerous prestigious prizes and honours for contemporary art, notably: 2002 Prayer Room. Award by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust; 2002 Through the Surface. Funded by the British Council, BWI galleries Poland; 2002–2003, Currency and Belief. Awards by the Henry Moore Foundation, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Arts Council of England; 2004–2006 Chatham Vines. Awards by Medway Regeneration, Arts Council England; 2004 Stamping Uncertainty. Awards from Canterbury City Council, Arts Council England, the Henry Moore Foundation; 2005 mine. Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, Awards from The British Council, Mrs Ray Smith Jr Endowment Fund and the Wisconsin Arts Board; 2005 The Westonbirt Wishes. Westonbirt Arboretum. Commissioned and funded by Forestry Commission; 2005 Happiness is not a right, Cork, Ireland. Grant funded by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and European Capital of Culture; 2005 Shortlisted for the Star Art Prize. This was an award of £750000 to realise a major work for the East Midlands Region. The shortlist was 5 international artists from a global application of 90 artists; 2006 Stamping Uncertainty, the Fratry Building, Carlisle Cathedral. Arts Council England, major award; 2006 Winner of the Rouse Kent Public Art Award. The award carries a prize of £20,000 together with the Rouse Chair for a year. It is now the third largest art prize in the UK. The panel of judges is chaired by Stephen Deucher, Director of the Art Fund and formerly Tate Britain; 2007 Ark road vines. Feasibility and research funding from Arts Council England, major award; 2008 First recipient of the international artists residency at The Collection (Lincolnshire); 2009 Arts Council England / National Lottery award for the Noah Laboratory project; 2010 Arts Council England / National Lottery award for The Clearing (final phase).

Publications

• Ecology Works, John Newling (2020), foreword by Jonathan Watkins, essay by Anne Douglas and Mark Hope, Beam Editions. ISBN 978-1-9162759-4-2 Search this book on .

• Dear Nature, John Newling (2020), (Hardcover 2018), Beam Editions. ISBN 978-1-9162759-2-8 Search this book on .

• The Last Islands, John Newling (2015), Mark Hope, Ann Newling and Anne Douglas (Ed.) with Essay's from John Newling, Mark Hope, Anne Douglas, Richard Davey and David Crouch, Woodend Publishing.

• The Lemon Tree & Me, John Newling (2015), Limited edition of 175 copies, published on the occasion of the conference ‘Climate Change and the Common Good’, St Paul’s Cathedral, London, UK, April 2015, JN Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9542484-1-3 Search this book on .

• Spinning - Nature, Culture and the Spiritual in the Work of John Newling, Richard Davey (2013), Peter Sawbridge (Ed.), Nottingham Contemporary. ISBN 978-1-907421-06-8 Search this book on .

• The Noah Laboratory - Constructing Soil, John Newling (2009), foreword by Lesley Farrell, an essay by John Newling and a critical overview by Dr Jonathan Willett, The Collection, Lincoln. ISBN 978-0-9562377-0-5 Search this book on .

• Make a Piano in Spain, John Newling (2008), with a foreword by Ken Arnold and a contextual essay by Dr Jonathan Willett, Wellcome Trust. ISBN 978-1-84129-079-9.

• Preston Market Mystery Project, John Newling (2008), foreword by Bob Dickenson and a DVD of the live reading event and edited film of the project, Harris Museum. ISBN 978-1-871575-27-9 Search this book on .

• An Essential Disorientation, John Newling (2007), commissioned by the Polish Museum of Contempo-rary Sacred Art and published by SARP, Poland (English and Polish). ISBN 978-83-922964-0-9 Search this book on .

• Chatham Vines, John Newling (2006), includes essays by Newling, Isabel Vasseur, Andrew Spira, Peter Locke and an extensive interview between Paul Bonaventura and John Newling, ArtOffice. ISBN 987-0-9543608-1-8

• Writings by John Newling 1995–2005, John Newling (2005), prefaced by Johannes Birringer, SWPA.

• Stamping Uncertainty, John Newling (2004), includes Essays by Newling and Andrew Spira, SWPA. ISBN 0 9547300 03 9547300 03 Search this book on .

• The Westonbirt Wishes, John Newling (2004), essays by Newling and foreword by Samantha Wilkinson, SWPA. ISBN 0 9547300 11 9547300 11 Search this book on .

• Currency and Belief, John Newling (2003), includes essays by Antonia Payne, Simon Herbert, Clare Lil-ley and John Newling, Yorkshire Sculpture Park. ISBN 1-871-480-41-8 Search this book on .

• Prayer Not of Proof but of Love, John Newling (2002), Worcester Hospital Chaplaincy. ISBN 0-9542484-0-6 Search this book on .

• 1.0, John Newling (2001), Video of the Performance and Installation for Making History at Stafford Prison, Stafford; Making History

• PLACE; selected writings, John Newling (1998) Published by the Turnpike Gallery in association with Newling’ project Weight. ISBN 0-9529470-1-3 Search this book on .

References

This article "John Newling" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:John Newling. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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