Paul Noble

A dedicated draughtsman, Noble creates elaborate coded systems and schemes, drawing on the diversity of textual traditions—from pictogram to scroll, visual layout and the written word, to explore how meaning is made, read, and passed down across cultures. Born in 1963 in Northumberland, England, he attended Sunderland Polytechnic, England, from 1982 to 1983 and Humberside College of Higher Education, Lincoln, England, from 1983 to 1986. He is most known for Nobson Newtown, an ongoing drawing project depicting a fictional dystopian city for which he was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2012. A founding member of City Racing gallery, London (1988–1998), an artist-run space outside the commercial gallery circuit, Noble is a recipient of a prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists (2000) and was recently named one of Sir John Soane’s Museum’s Artists-in-Residence (2024). Solo museum exhibitions include the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich (2005); Nobson, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2014); Paul Noble: New Works, Gagosian San Francisco (2017), and Musee des Beauxarts de La Chaux-de-Fonds (2018). His work has been part of numerous group exhibitions, including shows at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (2001); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2002); Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia (2003); New Museum, New York (2003); and Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich (2003), and Body & Void: Echoes of Moore in Contemporary Art at the Henry Moore Foundation, Perry Green (2014). Noble’s work is held in the collections of the British Council; Tate, London; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the British Museum, London; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; FRAC des Pays de la Loire, France; and many other museums and collections. He lives and works in London.