Nick Hornby (born 1980) is a British artist specialising in sculpture. He is known for his monumental site-specific works, that combine digital software with traditional materials such as bronze, steel, granite and marble. His work addresses historical critique, semiotics, digital technologies and queer identity.[1]
His work has exhibited at Tate Britain, The Southbank Centre, The Museum of Arts and Design (New York) and is represented in collections including The Roberts Institute of Art. He received significant recognition for his large-scale public sculptures in London which critically engage with the legacy of monuments.[2] His work has been reviewed in the New York Times,[2]Frieze,[3]Artforum,[4] and featured in The BBC,[5]Wired,[6] The Art Newspaper,[7] and his 2022 monograph (published by Anomie), includes a foreword by Luke Syson. He is a Fellow and Trustee of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.
Early Life and Education
He received his education at the Slade School of Art, and Chelsea College of Art. His early practice was rooted in digital experimentation, engaging with emerging technologies before their mainstream adoption. At the Slade, he worked with Video and Installation, using object-oriented programming software such as MAX MSP. He became known for his VJ-ing, with performances at venues including the ICA Bar, Whitechapel Gallery’s ‘Late Nights,’ and Tate Britain’s ‘Late at Tate.’ During an exchange at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he joined the group “Radical Software Critical Artware.”[8] He later became a resident at Eyebeam, the pioneering not-for-profit art and technology centre in New York.[9]
On his MFA at Chelsea College of Art, his focus shifted to literary theory and semiotics leading him to sculpture — now his primary medium. His use of the digital today traces back to this formative period of new media experimentation. Though his sculptures are fabricated in traditional materials such as bronze, steel, and marble, their forms are shaped by the technological fluency he developed early in his career. His current practice seamlessly integrates parametric modelling, algorithmic processing, and CNC machining, bridging classical materials with cutting-edge computational methods.
Career
After Graduating from Chelsea in 2009, Hornby’s work gained significant recognition: he was awarded the University of the Arts London Sculpture Prize,[10] described by ES Magazine as “The New Gormley”[11] and picked for the Evening Standard “Who to Watch”.[12] Following this he received a commission from Tate during their Triennial’s Altermodern (2009)[13] and in the same year for the Southbank Centre in connection to the Hayward’s show, Walking in My Mind (2009). His first solo show, Atom vs. Super Subject (2010), showcased his innovative intersectional approach, blending multiple art-historical references within a single form. These works were typically monochromatic and cast in synthetic marble or bronze.
Installation View: Atom vs Super Subject, 2010. Alexia Goethe Gallery, London
In 2020, Hornby’s solo exhibition, Zygotes and Confessions, at Mostyn, (curated by Alfredo Cramerotti) introduced the digital image onto the surface of his sculptures. This marked a critical shift in his career away from the monochromatic art-historical blended works towards autobiography and themes of queerness, digital reproduction, and the instability of meaning in a hyper-mediated age. He adopted a process of hydrographic dipping to apply a liquified photograph over the surface of the sculptures with a hyper-glossy finish.[14]
2021 marked another significant shift in Hornby’s career where he won three permanent public commissions in London. These marked a shift into monumental work and engagement with the public realm.
Public Commissions
Hornby has completed several high-profile public commissions, which critically engage with the legacy of monuments. These include:
Power over Others is Weakness Disguised as Strength (2023) – Orchard Place, Westminster, London. A five-meter-high 6.5 tonne steel sculpture commissioned by Northacre. From one viewpoint, passers-by will see a man on horseback - as they walk around the work, this image dissolves into a curling line inspired by a squiggle printed in the eighteen-century novel Tristram Shandy[15]
Here and There (2023) – One Kensington Gardens, London. A bronze work composed of the figure from Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, by Caspar David Friedrich intersected with a wavy line printed in Tristram Shandy
Do It All (2023) – Royal Warwick Square, Kensington. A monumental bronze sculpture juxtaposing the profile of Nefertiti with the Albert Memorial.
Twofold (2019) – Installed in Harlow, this work intersects Michelangelo’s David with abstract geometries inspired by Kandinsky.
Power over others is Weakness disguised as Strength, Nick Hornby, 2023, Orchard Place, Westminster, London, UK
Other notable commissions include a presentation of monumental sculpture at Glyndebourne Opera House[16] in the UK, and 'Bird God Drone,' Commissioned by Two Trees Management Co, in partnership with NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program for outdoor presentation in DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY,[17]
Hornby’s sculptures often intersect multiple references, creating hybrid forms that engage with the history of representation. He employs advanced digital modelling techniques to generate compositions that blur the boundaries between abstraction and figuration. His work frequently examines the tension between authorship and collective cultural memory, with influences from thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, and Jacques Derrida.
His Intersection series (ongoing since 2009) exemplifies this approach, merging fragments of canonical artworks into unified yet unstable forms that shift in meaning depending on the viewer’s position. These sculptures resist fixed interpretation, instead unfolding as a dialogue between historical imagery and contemporary digital fabrication. Works from the series, such as Power over Others is Weakness Disguised as Strength (2023), challenge the authority of traditional monuments by deconstructing and reassembling their visual language. Through this method, Hornby explores the fluidity of cultural memory, questioning how meaning is constructed and altered over time.
Critical responses
Hornby’s work has been featured in art publications, including The New York Times,[2]Frieze,[3]Artforum,,[4]The Art Newspaper,[7]The Financial Times, Architectural Digest, Cultured Magazine, and Artsy. He has also been featured in the BBC,[5] Wired[6] and Vogue.[18] His sculptures have been noted for their rigour and technical innovation, with critics highlighting their ability to simultaneously reference and subvert traditional sculptural tropes and reinterpret classical traditions
Luke Syson, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, has described Hornby’s work as “a compelling dialogue between the past and present, challenging our perceptions of form and history.”
Publications
Nick Hornby (2022, Anomie Publishing) – A monograph featuring essays by Luke Syson and Hannah Higham, examining Hornby’s approach to form and authorship.
This first major monograph on Hornby includes a foreword by Luke Syson, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, an essay by Dr. Hannah Higham, Senior Curator at the Royal Academy, and an interview with Dr. Helen Pheby, Head of Curatorial Programme at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The texts delve into Hornby’s inspirations, methods, materials, and views on collaboration and public art, offering insights into his thinking at a pivotal career moment. “Nick Hornby is one of the leading sculptors of his generation in Britain today, creating works on both intimate and monumental scales, and at the intersection of art history and contemporary technology.”[19][20]
Personal Life
Hornby Lives in London. He grew up in Shepherd's Bush with a mother who was a model and a circuit judge father.[21] He identifies as gay, and this informs many aspects of his artistic practice. His work often engages with questions of visibility, queerness, and the politics of representation in contemporary art.
Selected Exhibitions
Zygotes and Confessions – MOSTYN, Wales (2020)[14]
Atom vs. Super Subject – Alexia Goethe Gallery, London (2010)
Walking in Our Mind – The Southbank Centre, London (2009)
The Ghost in the Machine – Tate Britain (2009)[13]
↑ Magazine, Deborah Feldman, Es (10 April 2012). "Introducing... a new Gormley". The Standard. Retrieved 3 March 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ "Nick Hornby". Public Statues and Sculpture Association. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
↑ Magazine, Deborah Feldman, Es (10 April 2012). "Introducing... a new Gormley". The Standard. Retrieved 3 March 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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