Neil Powell has been an arts professional in various capacities for the past 4 decades; primarily, his outputs can be characterized by his work as an artist, educator, curator, and the academic lead for a prestigious UK arts university.

Professor Powell was awarded an emeritus chair in art and design education in 2020 and is the former pro vice-chancellor of Norwich University of the Arts (NUA), England (2005-2020). Subsequent to taking a break from higher education leadership, in 2023 Powell co-founded L’Albero dei Fichi (The Fig Tree) with Finola Gaynor, Simonetta Panico, and Giuseppe Adorni. From its headquarters in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, L’Albero dei Fichi is a legally constituted not-for-profit entity promoting the arts, culture, and creativity in all their manifestations.

Alongside his work as a curator, artist, and senior academic, he is known for his work with public and private sector creative arts bodies. A former Henry Moore Scholar, his practice has been influenced by his creative work with significant artists, teachers, and curators, including Francis Bacon, Helen Chadwick, Damien Hirst, Phillip King, Jannis Kounellis, Alfredo Jaar, Richard Long, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Claudio Parmiggiani, Richard Deacon, Karsten Schubert, Alison Wilding, Eduardo Paolozzi, Art & Language, Roger Ackling, and many, many others.

Powell worked over an extended period (2005-2020) with Arts Council Collections and Hayward Gallery Touring alongside work with commercial galleries such as Simon Lee (London, New York, Hong Kong) and Annely Juda, London. He is a curator in his own right with over 100 shows to his credit over the past three decades. He has previously been involved in the curator selection for the Hayward Open Curatorial and was closely associated with the UK’s major survey exhibition, the British Art Show 8.

L’Albero dei Fichi (The Fig Tree) is in keeping with Powell’s role as a long-standing Ambassador (2019-) for the Terzo Paradiso (Fondazione Pistoletto ONLUS), and the central focus of this role is a commitment to promoting creativity and change in accordance with the United Nations Strategic Development Goals and the Cittadelarte’s Geographies of Change.

Powell has written and exhibited extensively on the international stage, with past projects including a major showing of Art & Language at MoMA PS1, New York, with Professor Michael Corris, and has curated and organized shows by the likes of Claude Cahun, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Tess Jaray, Michael Craig-Martin, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Damien Hirst, Alison Wilding, Alfredo Jaar, John Craske, Roger Ackling, Ana Maria Pacheco, and Ian Hamilton Finlay. In 2018, Powell worked with Mario Codognato and the Houghton Estate to bring Damien Hirst’s ‘Hymn’ to Norwich and subsequently, ‘Erl King’ by Sir Anthony Caro. The ‘Mutator’ show with Professor William Latham was originated for Norwich but was included in the 57th Venice Biennale and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Since 2014 he has contributed a monthly column on arts and culture for Meer (formerly Wall Street International), is a guest columnist for Arts and Museum Magazine, and was commissioned to write a piece on Luciano Fabro for the Brooklyn Rail in New York City. He has made numerous appearances on BBC and ITV television and BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. His work features in the Imago Mundi – Art Theorema #1 exhibition at Salone degli Incanti in Trieste, Italy (2018), and was pivotal in the realization of the project ‘Earth Axis’ with the artist Claudio Parmiggiani at Houghton Hall, United Kingdom, in 2021. In May 2019, Powell curated an exhibition featuring the work of the late Sir Anthony Caro, Iron in the Soul, to coincide with the Norfolk and Norwich Festival.

Recent projects include the ‘Territory: Exhibition in a Box’ exhibitions/installations and events at Lust and the Apple, Edinburgh (March 2019); Collaboratorium I’m Aufbau am Moritzplatz (CLB), Berlin (April 2019); Rebirth/Terzo Paradiso – Fondazione Pistoletto, December 2020, Italy; and Wright Gallery, TAMU, Texas, USA (March 2021). Casoria Art Museum Relaunch, Napoli, Italy, in 2025, and Claudio Parmiggiani at the Estorick Collection, London, which commenced in May 2025.

Born in Manchester, England, 1961. Based in Norfolk, England, and Emilia-Romagna, Italy.