1949-

Richard Deacon is a British abstract sculptor, and a winner of the Turner Prize. Deacon has been a leading figure in British sculpture since the 1980s. His consistently innovative use of form and his interest in materials and their manipulation make him one of the most inventive artists of our time. Throughout his career, Deacon has worked with a diverse range of materials including laminated wood, polycarbonate, leather cloth, stainless steel and clay. In a recent interview he explains: "changing materials from one work to the next is a way of beginning again each time (and thus of finishing what had gone before)." His hand-built ceramic works are inspired by the simple gestures of how the material reacts to methods of construction and manipulation, where hollowing, carving, piling and squashing become techniques in themselves. His constructions are often of unexpected scale, ranging from the domestic to the monumental.