Sir John Soane’s Museum has announced Nika Neelova and Paul Noble as the Soane’s 2024 Artists-in-Residence. Both artists will bring their remarkable work into the very heart of Sir John Soane’s historic architectural practice: his Drawing Office.
Nika Neelova and Paul Noble follow in the footsteps of Sam Belinfante and Ella Baron, who were the inaugural Soane’s 2024 Artists-in-Residence and the first creative practitioners to work in this unique space for two centuries. The Drawing Office was where Soane’s draftsmen and apprentices worked on his celebrated projects. Just as Sir John Soane supported the next generation of architectural talent, the Soane continues to support and champion creative production to this day. The opening of the Drawing Office has enabled the Soane to host two three-month residencies each year (in the Spring and the Autumn).
The Drawing Office was the beating heart of Soane’s architectural practice, where he instructed his pupils in the art of architecture. It’s a joy to all of us at the Museum that we’re able to welcome a new generation of talented creative practitioners into this unique space. Nika and Paul are extraordinary artists, who we hope will enormously enjoy their time working with our team and being inspired by Soane’s incredible collection.
Will Gompertz, Deborah Loeb Brice Director of Sir John Soane’s Museum
Not only do the two residents have the opportunity to work in the Office, but they also have access to the
Museum’s collection, exhibitions, events and education programmes to inspire and inform their work.
A microsite charting the restoration of the Drawing Office and the ongoing work of the residents, as well as information on how to join a tour of the space, can be found at drawingoffice.soane.org. A digital fly-through of the Drawing Office is available to explore on explore.soane.org.
Sir John Soane’s Museum has been an immense source of inspiration for my work since the first time I visited a decade ago, when I was doing my MA at the Slade. Soane’s fascination with weaving complex and intricate narratives into the interiors of the building – grown around artefacts spanning millennia and referencing architecture, archaeology, history, mythology woven together – brought into existence a unique and timeless place. It’s a privilege to be able to work from the Drawing Office, experience the inner fabric of this Museum and learn from its many histories and the many people associated with it.
Nika Neelova, Sir John Soane’s Museum Artist-in-Residence for 2024,
I hope to find a new rule that will get the measure both of myself and John Soane.
Paul Noble, Sir John Soane’s Museum Artist-in-Residence for 2024,
About the 2024 resident artists
Nika Neelova lives and works in London, where she received her Masters Degree from the Slade School of Art, after graduating with a BA degree from the Royal Art Academy, KABK. Her work has been exhibited in the United Kingdom and internationally, recent solo exhibitions include Very Like a Whale at the Santorini Museum in Greece (2023), Thaw at Noire Gallery in Turin (2023), One of Many Fragments at the New Art Centre, Roche Court (2021), Silt at Brighton CCA (2021), CELINE Art Project curated by Hedi Slimane for Celine London (2021), [?] [?] [?] at Garage MCA (2021), Ever at The Tetley, Leeds (2019).
Selected group exhibitions include: (Everything) is not what it seems curated by Mara Ambrosic for the Piran Coastal Galleries Museum (2023) & NITJA museum, Oslo (2022), From Birth to Earth, Parafin, London (2023), Frieze Allied Editions (2021); Her Dark Materials curated by Philly Adams (2021), Art Newspaper 40th Anniversary project (2021), She Sees the Shadows curated by Olivia Leahy and Adam Carr for DRAF & Mostyn museum, Wales (2018), Seventeen. The Age of Nymphs curated by Daria Khan for Mimosa House, London (2017), Theatre of the Absurd, Green Art Gallery, Dubai (2017).
Nika Neelova was awarded the Kenneth Armitage Young Sculptor Prize, the Land Security Prize Award, the Royal British Society of Sculptors Bursary Award and was the winner of Saatchi New Sensations. In 2017 Neelova attended an alternative study program organised by the Wysing Art Centre in Cambridge. In 2019 she was awarded the Arts Council National Lottery Grant supporting the development of her practice.
Nika Neelova first gained recognition for her large-scale sculptures and sculptural installations, depicting
complex, imaginary environments that suggest a place or a landscape out of time. She participated in
numerous residencies and her work is represented in various public and private collections internationally. nikaneelova.com
Paul Noble was born in Northumberland, in 1963. He studied at Sunderland Polytechnic from 1982-83 and Humberside College of Higher Education, Hull, from 1983-86. He was included in Abracadabra at the Tate Gallery, London in 1999 and the British Art Show in 2000. In 2002, he took part in Drawing Now: Eight Propositions, Museum of Modern Art, New York and (The World May Be) Fantastic, Biennale of Sydney, Australia. Recent solo exhibitions include Paul Noble: New Works, Gagosian, San Francisco (2017); Paul Noble: Nobson, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2014); The Gates, Gagosian, Athens (2013) and Marble Hall, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (2011). Paul Noble was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2012.
Recent group exhibitions include Lines of Thought, Marta Herford Museum, Marta Herford, Germany
(2015); Drawing Now, Albertina, Vienna (2015); Body & Void: Echoes of Moore in Contemporary Art, Henry Moore Foundation, Perry Green (2014); Automatic Cities: The Architectural Imaginary in Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, California (2009). Paul lives and works in London. gagosian.com/artists/paul-noble
