Interview | Nathan Coley, the artist thriving on collaboration and friction

Invited to create riverside public art atop London’s massive new Super Sewer, Turner Prize-shortlisted Nathan Coley butted against a rules-based world at odds with his own – but creative differences have borne fruit

 

‘Yeah, I became a pain in the arse,’ chuckles Turner Prize-shortlisted artist Nathan Coley. For nine years, Coley has been at the heart of a new 4,000m2 public space on the River Thames at Blackfriars – acting both as agitator and collaborator among architects, engineers, councillors and client.

 

March 17, 2025