John Atkin is a multi-media artist who graduated from The Royal College of Art in 1985 with an MA in Sculpture. He is the only person ever to receive a scholarship personally funded by Henry Moore. He has since progressed into several fellowships, such as his appointment as an Honorary Fellow at the National Academy of Sculpture in Beijing and as a Fellow at the Royal Society of Sculptors in London. Atkin has won several awards throughout his lifetime for his work, including the first prize in the Olympic Landscape Sculpture Designs Contest (2008) and the Marshalls Award in Public Realms (2009).

His work has been exhibited worldwide in renowned venues, including the Guggenheim Museum in Italy and the Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne. Beginning in 2008, the artist has worked on numerous projects internationally, one of which was ‘The Silk Road’, a sculpture developed for the first China Youth Games (2015). Another project, titled ‘Access to Freedom’ was completed in Toronto, Canada in 2018. In addition to his artistic accomplishments, Atkin has been a lecturer and academic in Fine Art in institutions worldwide as well as a Director of Internationalism at Loughborough University. His long-term relationship with China has continued as well, participating in conferences and lectures at institutions such as Tsinghua University and the China Academy of Arts. As of April 2022, John Atkin has held his most recent exhibition at Wolfson College, showcasing his ‘Sentinel’ sculptures.