Keith Rand

Keith Rand RSA (born 25 October 1956) is a contemporary English Wood Sculptor and a Royal Scottish Academician.

Born in Rinteln, West Germany the son of a Lieutenant Colonel of the British Army and the second of four children,Rand had a military childhood, before entering Woodroffe School as a boarder at the age of 13. [http://www.woodroffe.dorset.sch.uk/Woodroffe] [http://www.jmlondon.com/pages/biography/24685.html] On leaving he trained as a cartographic surveyor for the Ordnance Survey, Southhampton, [Lacey, Steven"The Sapce Between, Keith Rand"Ray Street; London] before enrolling in 1979 at the Winchester School of Art and graduating in 1982 with a First Class honours. Around this time "Sculpture In The Woods", Keith's first solo show was held at the Crabwood Nature Reserve, Winchester.

After leaving Winchester Keith worked as a part-time sculpture technician for the Scottish Sculpture Workshop in Lumsden [http://www.ssw.org.uk/] as well as teaching at the Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen from 1987 to 1991 [http://sculpture.org.uk/biography/KeithRand/] His contribution to contemporary sculptural practice in Scotland and internationally was recognised through the many awards he received. In 1996 he was made an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy [http://www.royalscottishacademy.org/pages/menu_page.asp] .

From 1996 to 1998 he was artist in residence at Cannington Agricultural College in Somerset, creating a series of landscape structures for the River Parrett Trail. [http://www.somerset.gov.uk/somerset/ete/rpt/artscrafts/index.cfm] [Lacey, Steven"The Space Between, Keith Rand"Ray Street; London] Following a visit to Japan in 1998, where he developed his original form motif, he established a studio at Clarendon Park in Salisbury.

In 1999 one of his largest public works, (standing more than four metres high, was bought for) Canary Wharf. [http://www.canarywharf.com/lifestyle/arts/artmap/index.htm] [Lambirth, A.(23rd November 2002),"Where to buy...Keith Rand: The Space Between", The Week, London, p24] He went on to create a series of tensile carvings that were exhibited in his first solo exhibition in London, with the Stephen Lacey Gallery. It was at this time that he was invited to develop a concept carving "Ridgeline" for "Sculpture at Goodwood", which was exhibited at the Guggenheim in Venice in 2002.

In 2005 he was made a Royal Scottish Academician, and moved to Cranbourne Chase in Dorset. His most recent sculpture commissions include: "By The Downs" for ArtCare, [http://www.artcare.salisbury.nhs.uk/index.htm] Salisbury District Hospital; "In The Balance" for the Brecklands in Norfolk; "Heartwood" for Bournemouth University [http://www.thenewforest.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=274&Itemid=101] ; and "The Grain" for Sainsbury's in Edinburgh [http://www.art-in-partnership.org.uk/wip/index.html?topic_id=196] .

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