Eric Snell

Biography

Eric Snell, an artist with a career spanning over four decades, has consistently explored the intricate relationship between materials, processes, and the natural forces that surround us. From his earliest experimental Kite Drawings, through to his magnetic and burnt wood work right up to his Common Blue Series and Tide Line work, Snell has been interested in exploring how these elements cannot only collaborate to support, shape, and inform his work but he is also interested to see how these components can often dictate the outcome.

Central to Snell's artistic philosophy is the concept of the artist as a catalyst, a mediator who brings together disparate elements to create a visual as well as cerebral and physical balance – always looking for that inherent, self-determining ‘sense of rightness.’

As an alumnus of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD and a past resident of the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, Snell in 2003 was awarded an Arts Council of England International Research Fellowship when he dug a virtual hole through to the other side of the world. A visiting guest professor at the Casper David Friedrich Institute, at the University of Greifswald in Germany Eric Snell is currently based in Wiltshire where he continues to push the boundaries of his artistic practice.

1953

Born, Guernsey, Channel Islands. GB

1972-73

One-Year Art Foundation Course, Birmingham Polytechnic, England

1972-76

BA Fine Art (1st Class Hons) Hornsey College of Art, London

1982

Guest Lecturer, Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, Canada

1984

Guest Lecturer, Slade School of Art, University College, London

1985-86

Awarded the DAAD International Artist-in-Residence Fellowship Lived and worked in Berlin, Germany

1986-88

Visiting Lecturer, Middlesex University, London

1988-92

Part-time Lecture, Adult Education Programme, Guernsey College

1991

Visiting Lecturer, École des Beaux Arts, Caen, France

1992

Awarded the Cité Internationale des Arts Scholarship Lived and worked in Paris, France

1992-93

Associate Professor, École des Beaux Arts, Caen, France

1994-2008

Set up and headed the first School of Art and Design, Guernsey College

1995-2007

Co-founder/co-organiser of the International Artist in Residence Programme

1997

Royal Society of Arts, Civic Trust Award (for the design of the Liberation Monument)

1999-2000

Roswell Artist-in-Residence Programme Lived and worked in New Mexico, USA

2002-03

Arts Council of England International Research Fellowship Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia Lived and worked in Queensland, Australia

2004

Rootstein Hopkins Foundation Major Project Award

2005

Ambassador of the Year Award, Guernsey

2009-15

Founding Director, Art and islands Foundation, Guernsey

2018 -

Visiting Guest Professor, Casper David Friedrich Institute, University Greifswald, Germany

Work in Public Collections

Menil Collection, Menil Drawing Institute, Houston, Texas, USA

Westfälischer Kunstverein, Munster, Germany

Museum of Contemporary Art, Linz, Austria

Constructivist Collection, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England

Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia

Bayer Collection, Stockholm, Sweden

Agnes Etherington Arts Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Lannan Foundation, Los Angeles, USA

National Collection for Contemporary Art, Paris, France

Mendoza Foundation, Caracas, Venezuela

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, USA

Museum Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern, Germany

Donald Anderson Museum, Roswell, New Mexico, USA

Guernsey Museum, Guernsey, Channel Islands

Peter C Ruppert Collection, Wurzburg Museum, Germany