Visitors to Birmingham’s Medicine Gallery will be amongst the first to see new micro-sculptures by internationally renowned artist Dr Willard Wigan MBE.
The Wolverhampton-born micro-sculptor is famous for sculpting the world’s smallest works of art and has been celebrated in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The exhibition, running from Friday May 18 to Sunday June 3, will showcase around twenty-five micro-miniature works which sit within the eye of a needle, on the head of a pin and even on a human hair. Some of the artworks have never been exhibited in Birmingham before.
Alongside the new pieces, visitors will be able to see some of Wigan’s most iconic sculptures such as ‘Evolution’ - from ape to man, ‘The Last Supper in the eye of a needle,’ ‘Gold Galleon on a pinhead’ and the Guinness World Record holding sculpture; ‘Golden Voyage’ - a motorbike carved from specs of dust inside a hollowed out human hair.
The exhibition will appeal to not only art lovers but people of all ages, including children, who will undoubtedly be fascinated by the skill and genius of the artist’s unique perspective as they are transported to another dimension when viewing the impossibly small creations through custom-made displays incorporating microscopes.
Inspired to capture the attention and awe of the viewer, the subject matters are entirely hand sculpted and painted in the smallest and most microscopic of detail with the artist imagining and creating a microscopic world that entices people to look closer.
His work has been described as “the eighth wonder of the world” and it is fitting that the boy who was told he would amount to nothing was, in 2007, honoured by The Queen with an MBE for his services to art and, in 2018, was awarded an honorary doctorate by The University of Warwick.
Dr Wigan has gained international acclaim as his works have fascinated viewers around the world.
In celebration of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, he was commissioned to replicate the Coronation Crown on the head of a pin. That sculpture now resides at Buckingham Palace.
He said: “My motto in life is ‘the smallest of things can make big things happen.’ I continue to follow my late mother’s guiding advice: ‘the smaller your work, the bigger your name’ and my continued goal remains quite simple: to inspire others with my micro-sculptures and to encourage them to live to their fullest potential, remembering that ‘nothing’ does not exist.”
Willard will be present at the Medicine Galley on Friday May 18 to deliver a speech to open the exhibition. Both him and his work will also be celebrated and explored in a one hour Channel 4 documentary due to be broadcast on Sunday May 27.
50% of all proceeds from the exhibition will go to the fund for the commissioning of a monument at the National Memorial Arboretum for the unsung heroes of the Commonwealth Community in World War I and World War II.
