Nomad: Drawings & Sculptures
John Atkin
At the Nobu Hotel London Portman Square
13th - 26th October 2025
Nomad for Nobu
Nomad is a sculptural meditation on movement, belonging, and impermanence. Drawing from the archetype of the wanderer, the work embodies the tension between rootedness and displacement. Its form suggests both journey and transition—shifting planes, layered textures, and a sense of balance precariously achieved.
Wrapped within layers of clothing, nomadic people created a human presence defined by their winter attire, carrying bundles and packs that intriguingly disguised their innate human form. This observation informs the sculpture’s ambiguous identity. As well as evoking ideas of movement and the sense of being human, the work is both abstract and figurative: abstract in its construction as a combination of geometric forms, and figurative in its suggestion of the spherical shape of a pregnant female body.
The mirror-polished surface of the sculpture reflects the gaze of viewers, whilst simultaneously trapping them within the steel framework of its surfaces. The audience thus become part of this nomadic history, caught in the cycle of displacement and belonging that the work contemplates.
In Nomad, the artist invites reflection on contemporary migrations—whether chosen, imposed, or imagined—and the ways in which movement shapes identity. The work holds space for resilience, adaptation, and the beauty of transience, while quietly questioning what it means to belong in an ever-shifting world.