Darrell Viner

Darrell Viner was a British artist born in Coventry, England, in 1946. He studied at Hornsey College of Art from 1971 to 1974 before completing an MA in sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, in 1976. Alongside his artistic practice, he worked as an educator, teaching at institutions including Portsmouth Polytechnic and Chelsea School of Art, where he supported teaching and research involving mechanical, electronic, and computer-controlled systems.

While at Hornsey, Viner began using computers as part of his artistic practice, working with computer graphics pioneer John Vince, who was developing PICASO, one of the earliest computer drawing systems designed for artists. He learned to write in computer code and contributed to the development of the software’s Rough and Sketch functions, which altered plotted lines to introduce variation. At the Slade’s Experimental and Computing Department, he developed artist-built drawing systems and worked with custom-constructed pen plotters rather than commercial equipment. From the late 1970s onward, he applied computer control to kinetic and interactive sculpture, using programmed systems to drive movement, sound, and light in relation to architectural space and audience presence.

Viner’s work has been exhibited primarily in the United Kingdom since the 1970s and is held in public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Leeds Museums and Galleries, and the Henry Moore Institute. Notable presentations during his lifetime included Semaphore at Chisenhale Gallery in 1990 and the site-specific installation Is Tall Better than Small? at the Science Museum, London, in 2000. His early computer drawings were the focus of Darrell Viner: Early Work at the Henry Moore Institute in 2011, and his plotter works have appeared in historical surveys including Abstract Drawing at Drawing Room, London, and Chance and Control: Art in the Age of Computers at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Viner passed away in 2001.