CV
1988-89 Foundation Course Croydon College of Art and Design, London
1989-1993 BA Hons Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee
2006-2008 MFA at Goldsmiths College, London
Neil Hedger MRSS is a British sculptor whose work re-examines the figurative tradition through fragmentation, distortion, and uneasy humour. His sculptures engage with the inherited language of classical statuary — its authority, stillness, and claims to permanence — and subject it to material and conceptual disruption.
Drawing on the compositional logic of ancient Greek fragments and the Western canon that followed them, Hedger treats the human figure as something unstable and estranged. Bodies are fractured, compressed, or awkwardly reassembled, resisting idealisation and undermining the statue’s historical role as a vehicle for commemoration. Central to the work is a concern with how existential uncertainty survives when it is forced into matter — when the human figure is reduced to an object that cannot change, explain itself, or resolve its own meaning.
Hedger describes his practice as a form of existential materialism: an attempt to impose contemporary doubt onto objects traditionally associated with permanence and authority. The unchanging statue, shaped like a person, becomes a provocation — what, if anything, can still be fixed or commemorated about the human subject today?
Born in London in 1970, Hedger studied sculpture at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, before returning to London, where he worked extensively in applied sculpture within the film and television industries. He later completed an MFA at Goldsmiths, University of London, graduating in 2008.
He was selected for New Contemporaries 2008, awarded the Matt Roberts Salon Award in 2009, and was selected by Nigel Cooke for ArtReview Future Greats in 2011, and became a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors 2019 https://sculptors.org.uk/artists/neil-hedger
Hedger lives and works in London.
Solo shows include:
2014 DEVORABIT, HIX ART London;
2012 Scary Monsters, Alma Enterprises, London;
2009 A Day at The Races, Alma Enterprises, London;
2009 Time is a Sausage (solo), DOMOBAAL, London
Group exhibitions include:
The Royal Society of Sculptors 2021 Summer Show curated by Sigrid Kirk
Exhibiting artists: Madi Acharya-Baskerville, Simon Allison, Nicola Anthony, Helen Barff, Lucy Barlow, Mark Beattie, Maurice Blik, Lise Bouissière, Clare Burnett, John Clark, David Cooper, Dido Crosby, Lynn Dennison, Chris Dunseath, Emma Elliott, Nicole Farhi, Jill Gibson, Cheryl Gould, Camilla Hanney, Alexandra Harley, Neil Hedger, Joseph Hillier, Steve Hines, Linda Hubbard, Dilys Jackson, Andrew Kearney, Clare Kenny, Millie Laing-Tate, Sandra Lane, Hywel Livingstone, Briony Marshall, Melissa Murray, Christy Symington, Almuth Tebbenhoff, Sarah Villeneau, Sheila Vollmer, Poppy Whatmore, Emma Woffenden.
https://sculptors.org.uk/awards/summer-show/past-exhibitions/summer-show-2021
Proud Places project alongside the Heritage of London Trust
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eogbg7Wmuf4&t=1s
Saatchi Art Spring Fever 2014 curated by Rebecca Wilson, At Hyatt Churchill, London https://www.facebook.com/saatchionline/photos/a.10152329364253447.1073741834.143517328446/10152329464728447/
2011: Art Verona, Italy;
2010: She awoke with a Jerk: Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York.
Curated by Nigel Cooke- George Condo, Nigel Cooke, Armen Eloyan, George Grosz, Neil Hedger, Paul Housley, R.B. Kitaj, Ansel Krut, Sean Landers, René Magritte, Manuel Ocampo, Pablo Picasso; Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York.http://m.andrearosengallery.com/exhibitions/she-awoke-with-a-jerk_2010-05-08
Vicissitude, Kabin Art Collection, London;
Il alla a lai de l'ail, Crimes Town, London;
2009: Throw ‘em out, they break my heart, curated by Jonathon Houlding, SE8 Gallery, London; http://se8gallery.org/projects/cabinet-series/cabinets-5
Time is a sausage (group show), DOMOBAAL, London;
Salon09, Matt Roberts, London;
Modern Times, Vegas, London;
2008: Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2008, Liverpool & London
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