Life and career

Early life

Norman was born in

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506, situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parishes in England, civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter South Eastern Main Line, main line railway into Lo ...

, Kent, England in 1966 and lived there until 1979. In 1979 his parents moved to Bexhill, East Sussex. He attended Bexhill High School, Bexhill Sixth Form College and he did his Art Foundation at

Hastings College of Arts and Technology East Sussex College or East Sussex College Group is the largest higher education college in East Sussex, providing education and training from foundation to degree level. The college educates almost half of the county's young people and over ...

Public works

Norman has completed major public art projects, including a pedestrian bridge, small playgrounds and a landscaping project for the City of Roskilde. In 2007, his work was on show at

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

in the ''Global Cities'' exhibition, his presentation featured a series of posters displaying ecological and environmental information. In her 2006 survey ''Beyond Green'', Stephanie Smith highlighted Norman's interest in the apparent homogenization of urban spaces resultant from regeneration projects. It has been claimed that "Norman’s work has been compared to the urban projects of artists such as

Claes Oldenburg Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor best known for his public art installations, typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions ...

Robert Smithson Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973) was an American artist known for sculpture and land art who often used drawing and photography in relation to the spatial arts. His work has been internationally exhibited in galleries and mu ...

Gordon Matta-Clark Gordon Matta-Clark (born Gordon Roberto Matta-Echaurren; June 22, 1943 – August 27, 1978) was an American artist best known for site-specific artworks he made in the 1970s. He was also a pioneer in the field of socially engaged food art. ...

, and

Krzysztof Wodiczko Krzysztof Wodiczko (born April 16, 1943) is a Polish people, Polish artist known for his large-scale presentation slide, slide and video projections on architectural facades and monuments. He has realized more than 80 such public projections in A ...

.". He has been a regular contributor to ''Mute'' magazine. Norman takes inspiration from the work of anarchist theorist Colin Ward, going as far as experimenting with Ward's 1973 book "Streetwork". Norman has also referenced the efforts of Cedric Price, especially those set forth in Price's "Non-Plan". In 2010 Norman developed two small-scale urban farming parks in the Hague, the Netherlands, that test and question the limitations and potentialities of permaculture as a possible citywide alternative design strategy for urban centres They are an ongoing project and can be visited by the public. He has worked closely with the local community of Mereside to develop ideas for two new play areas. In 2015 the St Fagans National History Museum, Cardiff, Wales commissioned Norman to develop a new playground for the museum that reflects its collection of Welsh historical artefacts. The playground will be completed in Spring 2017. In collaboration with the artist Gareth Jones, Norman has been researching and designing a new public art strategy called City Club for the area around the Milton Keynes Gallery in Milton Keynes. Norman has also been collaborating with the Welsh artist Owen Griffiths on a public realm project in Trebanog, Wales. Working closely with children and parents locally to develop designs for their public spaces, commissioned by Artis Mundi. In 2017 he will complete a new library design for the Rietveld Art Academy Amsterdam.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norman, Nils English artists Living people 1966 births Academic staff of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Alumni of Saint Martin's School of Art Artists from Kent People educated at East Sussex College People from Bexhill-on-Sea People from Sevenoaks