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Following the successful inaugural Sydney Sculpture Conference in 2016 which formed part of the 20th Anniversary Sculpture by the Sea celebrations, the 2017 conference featured leading international and Australian speakers who discussed the importance, impact, challenges and opportunities of ‘Sculpture: in public space’.
German based, European-wide ‘sculpture network’ was our 2017 international partner. As Europe’s leading platform for the promotion, development and facilitation of contemporary sculpture, ‘sculpture network’ worked with Sculpture by the Sea to program the conference and build its international profile.
Programmed to bring together artists, curators, collectors, academics, arts professionals & enthusiasts, the annual Sydney Sculpture Conference aimed to develop collaborative partnerships that foster creative ideas exchange between local, national and international sculpture and art communities; while raising the profile, interest and awareness of sculpture across Australia.
A diverse group of over 200 attendees in Sydney heard from keynote and invited speakers facilitated by Stephen Bradley, Manager Transfield Art Collection.
Professor Lv PinchangProfessor Lv Pinchang is a practicing artist and academic holding numerous positions in some of China’s leading arts organisations, associations and institutions. He is currently the dean and doctoral supervisor of the sculpture department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Lv Pinchang is also Vice Chairman of the China National Urban Sculpture Association; Vice President and Secretary General of the sculpture committee of the Chinese Artists’ Association; and Deputy Director of the Arts Council of the National Urban Sculpture Guidance Committee.
Since 2010, Lv Pinchang has directed the “Summer of Steel” China International Youth Metal Sculpture Symposium and was the curator of the 3rd China International Sculpture Biennial held in 2015. Lv Pinchang has exhibited internationally since 2002 including USA, Norway, Korea, Japan, France and China.
Sui Jianguo received a Bachelor of Arts in the Fine Arts Department from the Shandong University of Arts in 1984 and a Master of Arts in the Sculpture Department from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1989. He has been praised by art critics for being a “pioneer venturing to the farthest reaches of Chinese sculpture.”
Sui Jianguo’s art explores his unique understanding and recognition of creation, form, alternative media, alternative methods, and space-time. His sculptures are ingenious fusions of concept and form, as many of his works utilize large-scale force to impact viewers. His early works carry strong symbolic content, most of which carefully relates the peculiarities of society and history. His later creations gradually became disconnected from his own identity and began incorporating a bigger visual angle, thus making his concepts of cultural space-time apparent.
Sui Jianguo has participated in many group and solo exhibitions, including Museum Beeldenaan Zee, Hague, Holland (2011); JGM Gallery, Paris (2010); World Expo Shanghai 2010; Museum, Beijing, China (2009); Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, China (2007); and Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Manila, The Philippines (2006).
www.suijianguo.com
John McDonaldJohn McDonald is art critic for the Sydney Morning Herald and film critic for the Australian Financial Review. He is a former Head of Australian Art at the National Gallery of Australia, where in 1999 he acted as curator for the show, Federation: Australian Art & Society 1901-2000.
John has published several books, countless essays and articles. He has lectured all over Australia and internationally, and worked as a freelance curator. Over the past decade he has written extensively on Chinese contemporary art, and hosted art tours to China. John served on the judging panel for the first-ever Sculpture by the Sea exhibition in 1997.
www.johnmcdonald.net.au
Dr Michael HillDr Michael Hill lectures on modern, contemporary, and Australian art, as well as conducting specialist electives on subjects such as architecture and 17th century painting. His research interests include Baroque art, portraiture, classical architecture, and art historical methodology.
Michael is also a curator and advisor to Sculpture by the Sea in Bondi, Cottesloe, and Denmark. He has been Head of Art History & Theory at NAS since 2011.
David HortonDavid Horton is an award winning sculptor who uses welded steel to explore space and light through mellifluous line and geometric form. He has won major awards in the Sculpture by the Sea, Helen Lempriere, Waverley Woollahra, Transfield and Sydney Airport Sculpture awards. David is a lecturer in sculpture and drawing at the National Art School and Sydney Grammar School. His sculptures are currently being exhibited at the McClelland Sculpture Survey exhibition in Melbourne.
www.kingstreetgallery.com.au/artists/harrie-fasher/
Wendy TeakelWendy Teakel spends her time between two iconic Australian landscapes; farming and grazing country of the Riverina and South West Slopes of New South Wales. Wendy works with enduring and fleeting qualities of landscape through painting and sculpting. Since 1990 Wendy has regularly visited Thailand and Japan bringing their influence to understand, utilise and express space visually.
Wendy works full time as a freelance artist and arts consultant and is an Honorary Visitor at the Australian National University, School of Art and Design. Wendy maintains a constant research and exhibition schedule, presenting new work each year in solo exhibitions and/or selected and curated exhibitions since the late 1980’s.
www.wendyteakel.com
Emeritus Professor Gavin YoungeGavin Younge studied fine art at the Johannesburg School of Art and later completed a MA in Fine Art at the University of Cape Town (UCT) during the late 1970s, a period of intense political repression in apartheid South Africa.
In 1985 he gave lectures at the Power Institute in Sydney, the ANU School of Art and Design and at Curtin University in WA. After further field research, these lectures led to the publication of a book in 1988, Art of the South African Townships, by Thames and Hudson in London and Rizzoli in New York.
His sculptures in cast iron and welded steel Botha’s Baby (iZiko National Gallery, Cape Town), and Riot Protected Pram (Unisa Collection, Pretoria) both date from the early 1980s. In 1993, he was appointed Director of the Michaelis School of Fine Art at UCT. In 2000 he curated an exhibition of South African art for Iceland’s millennial celebrations, and exhibited on the Champs Elysées by invitation of the mayor of Paris.
Gavin Younge has held four solo exhibitions in France, Paris, Nimes and Nantes (1999, 2000, 2007 and 2009). His most recent exhibition, simply titled Gavin Younge, was presented by Art Salé in the French city of Montpellier in 2017. In 2017, he served on the Curatorial Panel for Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe 2018
www.gavinyounge.com
Professor Paul S.C. Taçon FAHA FSAProf Paul Taçon is an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow (2016-2021), Chair in Rock Art Research and Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. He also directs Griffith University’s Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit (PERAHU) and leads research themes in the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research and Griffith’s Research Centre of Human Evolution. He has conducted archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork since 1980 and has field experience in remote parts of Australia, Cambodia, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, southern Africa, Thailand, the Philippines and the USA.
Prof Taçon co-edited The Archaeology of Rock-art and has published over 250 papers on rock art, material culture, colour, cultural evolution and identity. He has made key archaeological discoveries in western Arnhem Land (NT) and Wollemi National Park (NSW) that have been published and also have made world headlines.
In 2016 Prof Taçon was awarded the top award at the annual Australian Archaeological Association conference, the Rhys Jones Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Archaeology. He also received the 2016 Griffith University Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award for Research Leadership.
Professor Paul S.C. Taçon FAHA FSA: Chair in Rock Art Research and Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology (Brisbane, Australia)
Prof Paul Taçon is an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow (2016-2021), Chair in Rock Art Research and Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. He also directs Griffith University’s Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit (PERAHU) and leads research themes in the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research and Griffith’s Research Centre of Human Evolution. He has conducted archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork since 1980 and has field experience in remote parts of Australia, Cambodia, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, southern Africa, Thailand, the Philippines and the USA.
Prof Taçon co-edited The Archaeology of Rock-art and has published over 250 papers on rock art, material culture, colour, cultural evolution and identity. He has made key archaeological discoveries in western Arnhem Land (NT) and Wollemi National Park (NSW) that have been published and also have made world headlines.
In 2016 Prof Taçon was awarded the top award at the annual Australian Archaeological Association conference, the Rhys Jones Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Archaeology. He also received the 2016 Griffith University Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award for Research Leadership.
Hossein ValamaneshHossein Valamanesh was born in Iran and immigrated to Australia in 1973. He graduated from South Australian School of Art, 1977 and has exhibited in Australia and overseas including Germany, Poland, Japan, Finland, UK, UAE and Canada. Hossein has exhibited in Australia and overseas including Germany, Poland, Japan, Finland UAE, UK and Iran, and has completed a number of major public art commissions.
Hossein has completed a number of major public art commissions including An Gorta Mor, memorial to the Great Irish Famine, 1999, Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney and 14 Pieces on North Terrace, in Adelaide both with Angela Valamanesh. He was awarded an Australia Council Fellowship 1998. His work is included in most major public Australian art collections. A major survey of his work was held at the Art Gallery of South Australia in mid-2001 and a survey of his more recent work was held at Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, 2002.
Wakefield Press recently published a monograph of his work, titled Hossein Valamanesh, Out of Nothingness, with essays by Mary Knights and Ian North. In 2014 he undertook a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship in Washington DC.
He lives and works in Adelaide South Australia.
Petra PattinsonPetra Pattinson has worked as the Education Manager at Sculpture by the Sea for 8 years building on the Education and Access & Inclusion programs over the past 16 exhibitions in both Bondi and Cottesloe.
Petra studied Fine Art, Philosophy and Art History in the UK. She worked as a lecturer in art, design and contextual studies teaching vocational qualifications to 16-18 year old school leavers in central London. Petra immigrated to Sydney in 2003 and has worked as an Artist, Educator at MCA, AGNSW, and Brett Whitley Studio in Sydney; Programs Officer, Learning and Curriculum, City of Townsville, Queensland; and Schools and Projects Organiser, The Photographers’ Gallery, (TPG), London.
Britt Mikkelsen is an award winning Perth sculptor, designer and public artist, whose repertoire is diverse. From public art and sculptural works, through to commercial design and fabrication of lighting for commercial interiors, she has been involved in the arts for over 20 years. Her work explores the hidden beauty in nature, the lost things and the things we often ignore in our daily lives. Her work uses lighting both symbolically and literally to engage the onlooker and create a sense of wonder. Through Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2018 Britt has been awarded the Australian emerging artist Helen Lempriere Scholarship.
Britt is currently represented by the Studio Gallery in Yallingup.
www.brittmikkelsen.com.au
Lubomir MikleLubo Mikle was born in Bratislava, Slovakia. Mikle completed an M.F.A. at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (AFAD) in 2006. Mikle works predominantly in the medium of sculpture, sound object and installation. His work merges elements of recycling, art of industrial character, large-scale dimensionality, destructive attitudes and transformation of his own artwork.
He is represented in the collections of the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Slovakia; Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi; Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe and private collections in Slovakia and abroad.
Lubo lives and works in Bratislava
www.lubomikle.com
Nicole MonksNicole Monks is a trans-disciplinary artist of Yamatji Wajarri, Dutch and English heritage. Living and practicing in Sydney, Monks is informed by her cross-cultural identity.
A designer by trade, Monks crosses art forms to work with furniture and objects, textiles, video, installation and performance.
In addition to her solo practice, Monks is also well known for her success as a collaborative artist and as founder of blackandwhite creative.
Monks won the 2016 Marika Memorial 3D Art Award at the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in Darwin, Northern Territory, and is the recipient of the 2016 Arts NSW Design Mentorship Program.
www.nicolemonks.com
Michael PurdyMichael Purdy is a multi-award winning Australian sculptor, living on the south coast of NSW.
His most recent award is the Western Sydney University Acquisitive Sculpture Award 2016. In 2014 Michael was awarded the UWS Urban Growth Acquisitive Prize and he has won several Bondi Sculpture by the Sea awards including the inaugural Sculpture Inside Curator’s Prize in 2010 and People’s Choice Award in 2005.
Major commissions include large-scale sandstone works at Fraser Motorcycles showroom and The Argyle nightclub in Sydney plus many private outdoor and indoor commissions. Michael is represented in Sydney by Maunsell Wickes, Paddington.
www.michaelpurdysculpture.com.au
Rebecca RoseRebecca Rose was inspired at an early age by the vast open spaces of her hometown in New Zealand’s South Island.
Working from her home studio in the beautiful coastal suburb of Titirangi she creates striking sculptures in various metals, alloys and Corten steel. Her work has been sold to collectors both nationally and internationally. In June 2015, Rebecca’s sculpture ‘Eye Sight’ won the Fieldays No.8 Wire National Art Award.
Her work has been included in international festivals including the JIMO Qingdao Urban Sculpture Festival in China, which purchased Rebecca’s ‘Bush Tales’ sculpture for permanent exhibition in the city.
Her works have been featured in Sculpture by the Sea both in Bondi and Cottesloe, where Rebecca’s six meter ‘Sea Anemone’ now sits in the coastal park in for generations to enjoy.
Rebecca’s works are distinctive and abstract. Themes include the cyclic nature of life and humanity’s interconnectedness. Her works play with the environment around them, toying with natural and synthetic light and inviting wind to whisk around their organic-looking forms. “I see an idea and I love to take it through to fruition in its physical form,” says Rebecca. “My desire is to produce love and connection for humankind.”
Stephen BradleyStephen Bradley is a New Zealand-born artist, curator, writer and Corporate Affairs Manager. He moved to Sydney in 1983 and studied film at the School of Visual Arts. In 1988 he travelled to London where he worked as an artist, photographer, performer and director. In this time in London he was a trustee of two arts charities: The Art House and Cor Blimey Arts, which led to his curatorial work, highlights being group exhibitions at the European parliaments of Brussels and Strasbourg.
Relocating to Sydney in 2000 he joined Transfield Holdings as the company’s Art Collection Manager, a role he continues. From 2005 to the present he has also been Transfield Holdings’ Corporate Affairs Manager. In 2008, Transfield launched its Walsh Bay Sculpture Walk, which he continues to manage. Stephen recently completed a five-year stint as a Director of Regional Arts NSW, has been a member of the Transfield Foundation’s Advisory Committee.