Bryan Kneale began his career as a painter using a palette knife to construct the work in a very sculptural fashion. His paintings gained a strong following and he painted the portraits of Richard Attenborough and Normal Parkinson to name but a few. However, painting in this manner soon ceased to interest Kneale and in 1959, his thoughts still on sculpture, he learnt to forge and weld. His solo exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1966 followed.

‘Chariot’ is an excellent example of Kneale’s instant and direct working method. With an extraordinary eye for colour Kneale enjoys this directness as he can be fully involved in the actual making of the piece the same second as he has the idea; designing in the process of making. For Kneale making sculpture is a process of self-discovery. His innate fear of repetition means that once a form becomes familiar it is immediately discarded. What has been previously made will inform future new sculpture and will change the development of his work but that form as it stands will not continue.

The first abstract sculptor to be elected to the Royal Academy, he very quickly went on to mount 'British Sculptors', the seminal exhibition of Modern British Sculpture at the Royal Academy in 1972. An exhibition of the work of twenty-four sculptors working in the UK at the time, it has since been described as the most groundbreaking exhibition of contemporary sculpture held in Britain. He also curated the Jubilee exhibition of British Sculpture in Battersea Park in 1977. Bryan Kneale's career as a teacher began at the Royal College of Art in 1952, becoming Head of Sculpture in 1985 and Professor of Drawing in 1990.

Born on the Isle of Man in 1930, Bryan Kneale has exhibited widely both within the UK and internationally and his work can be found in many prestigious public collections including the Tate Collection; The British Museum; The Natural History Museum, London; The Arts Council of Great Britain; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paolo, Brazil and the National Gallery of New Zealand. To quote Bryan Kneale; "(the point of making sculpture) is to try and discover in some way the meaning of your own life, to clarify in your own mind those capabilities, or abilities, to see things achieve an existence independent of yourself". Pangolin London is pleased to represent Bryan Kneale.