Tim Noble and Sue Webster - Early Lives and Careers

Early Lives and Careers

Noble and Webster attended fine art foundation courses at Cheltenham Art College (now the University of Gloucester) and Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University) respectively. The two first met in 1986 as Fine Art students at Nottingham Trent University, became good friends through shared interests, particularly their tastes in music.

After graduating from university in 1989, they moved to Bradford, West Yorkshire, and from 1990-1992 worked in residency at the sculpture studios in Dean Clough. Their time in Bradford had a profound effect on their artistic development, inspiring much of their early work. They later moved to London when Noble began an MA in sculpture at the Royal College of Art, which marked the pair's entrance into the London art world.

Their first solo exhibition, entitled ‘British Rubbish’, was at the Independent Art Space (ISA) in 1996. This led to them being invited to participate in numerous exhibitions, including ‘Fool’s Rain’ at the ICA in 1996, in which they showed what they consider to be their first light sculpture; ‘‘Excessive Sensual Indulgence’’ (left).

In 1997, while working for the artists Gilbert and George in order to support themselves, they developed their signature imagery, experimenting with the assemblage of personal items and household rubbish out of which came their first shadow sculpture, ‘Miss Understood & Mr Meanor’ This work featured in their solo exhibition, ‘Home Chance’, mounted in their own Rivington Street studio in London. The exhibition attracted large audiences, including Charles Saatchi, who bought two of the three works on show.

The artist’s work was included in ‘Statuephilia – Contemporary Sculptors’ at the British Museum, London, 2008-2009 and in ‘Apocalypse – Beauty and Horror in Contemporary Art’ at the Royal Academy London, 2000. They have had solo shows at a number of other galleries in London, and since 2000, they have enjoyed international recognition with solo exhibitions in Athens, Berlin, Boston, Moscow, New York, and Seoul.

Their work features in a number of public collections, including the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Arken Museum of Modern Art, Denmark and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

In 2007, they were awarded the prestigious Arken Prize, and in 2009 they received Honorary Doctorates of Art from Nottingham Trent University, their former college, in acknowledgement of their artistic achievements to date.