Langlands & Bell

Ben Langlands was born in London in 1955 and Nikki Bell was born in London in 1959. They studied fine art together at Middlesex Polytechnic from 1977 - 80 and have been working together since 1978. Through film and video, digital media projects, sculpture, installation, prints, and architecture, Langlands & Bell explore the complex web of relationships linking people and architecture and the coded systems of circulation and exchange from our own society and from other cultures.

In 2002 they visited Afghanistan for two weeks where they investigated the aftermath of war in the twenty-first century. The resulting collection of work was shown in The House of Osama Bin Laden at the Imperial War Museum, London. The body of work was shortlisted for Turner Prize in 2003 and won the BAFTA Award for Interactive Art Installation in 2004. They have also made an impressive body of prints, a selection of which were included in Eye on Europe, Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2006.

Solo exhibitions include Sir John Soane's Museum, London (2020); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2018); Gibberd Gallery, Harlow (2014); Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (2007); Somerset House, London (2007); Tate Britain, London (2005); Milton Keynes Gallery, Milton Keynes (2005); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2003); Imperial War Museum, London (2003). Public commissions include Beauty < Immortality, Piccadilly Circus tube station, London (2016); FR Paris Metro/T3 Tramway interchange at Porte de Vincennes, Paris (2012); Paddington Basin Bridge, London (2004) and Terminal 5, Heathrow Airport, London (2005).

Their work is held in a large number of international museum collections including Arts Council of England, London; Henry Moore Institute, Leeds;  Saatchi Collection, London; Tate, London; New British Embassy, Moscow;  Helsinki City Art Museum, Helsinki; Norwegian National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo and Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Langlands & Bell live and work in Kent and London, England.