CREATIVE PRACTITIONER
Visual Artist Nabil Ali focuses on the process of creative representation, specialising in object art, sculpture and colour paint systems. He conducts research working from historical translated manuscripts focusing on painters' and illuminators' recipes. He works with the hidden detail and transforms found objects from site-specific spaces changing them into assorted designs and presentations. Much of his work has historic content linking the practical element and environment to the process from a contemporary and non-linear perspective. Ali has developed a working methodology using organic matter as the primary process material, allowing him to explore the surroundings to produce Art. He grows and collects materials forming an intimate relationship with the creative process to understand the boundaries of the materials used, exploring new experimental sculptures and practical knowledge from medieval technical manuscripts with primary research.
Ali has successfully won awards from the British Council, Arts Council England, Essex Cultural Diversity Project and Essex County Council. He was awarded a Collectors Group Award in Colchester for a research trip to FCT/IEM/NOVA in Lisbon to work with international experts and professors on paint systems. This led to exhibitions that were part of Europe for Culture celebrations and Dyes in History and Archeology international conference. He is currently an artist in residence at Cambridge University Botanic Garden for 1 year.
He is a visiting tutor at the University of Cambridge teaching Faculty of History students and is known throughout the Art Conservation industry with insight into organic dyes and paint. He has delivered many creative projects across England and overseas and was selected by an international committee to exhibit at the Florence Biennale in Italy. Celebrated workshops taught at the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens, the Ferens Art Gallery, Firstsite Gallery, the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter – University of Oxford, the Royal Drawing School formally known as the Princes Drawing School and the International school Lycee Francais Charles Lepierre in Lisbon.
Samples of work can be viewed in Vol. I, II