Biography
Glenn Onwin (b. Edinburgh, Scotland, UK 1947) studied at Edinburgh College of Art (166-1970) and Moray House College of Education (1972). He was the Prize Winner of Northern Young Contemporaries in 1971 and in 1972 won a Scottish Arts Council Award for travel in the United States. Throughout the 1970's and 1980's Onwin held a number of touring exhibitions of largely wall based works at diverse locations, including the Scottish Arts Council Gallery, Edinburgh; the Serpentine, London; the Arnolfini, Bristol; the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London and the Third Eye, Glasgow.
Revenges of Nature at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, in 1988 was an exhibition of his canvases, using a diverse range of media including plant material, chemicals, coal dust, metals and wax. In 1992 he used the Square Chapel in Halifax, Yorkshire, at that point derelict, for a site specific installation on two floors entitled 's Above So Below. This work was organised by the Henry Moore Sculpture Trust in Leeds. During 1997 Onwin participated in The Quality of Light project organised in association with the Tate Gallery, St Ives. His work Blood of the Pelican at Geevor Mine explored the processes of extracting tin, relating this to its symbolic aspects in a large installation in a redundant mine shed.
He has taught at Edinburgh College of Art since 1979, becoming a Professor in 2008. He has also lectured at Glasgow School of Art, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee and Grays School of Art, Aberdeen and is an Associate Member of the Royal Scottish Academy.
