News

Phil Price ‘Eden’ in Batlow Unveiling | Speech by Janet Peel, ‘Do it for Batlow’, Batlow Community Representative

Posted: March 11, 2024 / Essays Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail

What a pleasure and honour to be asked by David to speak on behalf of the Batlow Community today. A very warm Batlow welcome to our all distinguished guests here today. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting me my name is Janet Peel and I am proud to say I…


Reflecting on Sculptured Moments In Memory

Posted: March 6, 2024 / Essays

Anton Forde, ‘Papare’, Protection, Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe 2024. Photo: Richard Watson Artist Anton Forde reflects on Papare/Protection at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2023 and looks ahead to Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe 2024 As a sculptor living on an Island in the Hauraki Gulf I often hide away creating- sometimes for hours,…


Artists’ Reflections on 20 Sculpture by the Sea Exhibitions

Posted: February 29, 2024 / Essays

Jennifer Cochrane (WA) First exhibited on Cottesloe Beach in 2005  When considering the 20th exhibition of Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe my thoughts have travelled far and wide trying to find a way to reflect on this significant occasion and put it into a collection of words that make sense and have meaning.   Looking…


Can art help save rural communities

Posted: October 13, 2023 / Essays Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail

Can art help save rural communities, raise spirits, and improve the quality of life? Right at this moment, there is a bold experiment taking place to do precisely that and, so far, it has been a resounding success. By Sasha Grishin AM, Emeritus Professor, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia In the summer of 2019-20 bushfires devastated…


2023 BONDI CATALOGUE ESSAY: From Bondi to Batlow and Tamarama to Tumbarumba

The SNOWY VALLEYS SCULPTURE TRAIL from Bondi to Batlow and Tamarama to Tumbarumba The story behind taking sculptures from the beach to the bush. Following the bush fires of 2019-2020 we had the idea of creating Australia’s first world-class public Sculpture Park in the Snowy Valleys in southern New South Wales as a significant cultural tourist…


2023 BONDI CATALOGUE ESSAY: ARTISTS’ REFLECTIONS ON 25 SCULPTURE BY THE SEA EXHIBITIONS – PHILIP SPELMAN

Philip Spelman (NSW) First exhibited on the Bondi coastal walk in 1999 ‘‘Through Sculpture by the Sea, sculpture is the only artform in Australia where major international artists come to Australia at their own cost, to participate in what is regarded as one of the most important sculpture exhibitions in the world.’’ The exhibition ‘Sculpture…


2023 BONDI CATALOGUE ESSAY: ARTISTS’ REFLECTIONS ON 25 SCULPTURE BY THE SEA EXHIBITIONS – MARGARITA SAMPSON

Margarita Sampson (NSW) First exhibited on the Bondi coastal walk in 1997  Aussie Beach Culture met Sculpture by the Sea, and it seemed like the start of a wonderful relationship. Artist share-house, North Bondi, 1997: sand gritty on the floor, damp beach towels hung on every surface, Mazzy Star on repeat on the CD player,…


Twenty Years of Sculpture by the Sea 

Posted: June 28, 2023 / Essays

Sculpture by the Sea began as an eccentric idea that has since caught the imagination of a nation.  It has become an institution in its own right and now is as firmly entrenched in the country’s psyche as is the Archibald Portrait Prize.  Today it would be difficult to imagine the arts calendar without Sculpture…


2022 Bondi Catalogue Essay: Artists in the time of COVID

Posted: October 20, 2022 / Bondi Exhibition Catalogue Essays, Essays

We asked a cross section of artists exhibiting in this year’s Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi to reflect on how their lives and work changed due to the pandemic lockdowns. For some, the world changed in other ways, with the outbreak of war, for others, new creative avenues were explored.   Egor Zigura Ukraine Covid…


The Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail

Posted: June 8, 2022 / Essays, News

Can art help save rural communities, raise spirits, and improve the quality of life? Right at this moment, there is a bold experiment taking place to do precisely that and, so far, it has been a resounding success. In the summer of 2019-20 bushfires devastated the scenic Snowy Valleys with huge areas of bushland and…


Celebrating 50 Exhibitions in Australia & Denmark

Posted: February 19, 2022 / Essays

With this year’s 18th annual Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe we celebrate the 50th Sculpture by the Sea exhibition held in Australia and Denmark. Sculpture by the Sea began as a one day exhibition in 1997 along the 2km Bondi coastal walk in Sydney run by a team of volunteers working from the Founding Director’s…


Artists in the time of COVID

Posted: February 24, 2021 / Essays

From solitude to silver linings, a cross-section of exhibiting artists were asked to reflect on 2020, and the impact of the COVID pandemic from an artist’s perspective. Vivi Linnemann, Denmark I was in the process of renting new Ateliers in Denmark and Switzerland, when we all realised that Covid was going to change life as we…


2009 – 2020 Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe Access & Inclusion

Posted: February 27, 2020 / Essays

Jacqueline Homer, DADAA Head of Production and Petra Pattinson, former Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe School Education Access & Inclusion Program Manager, tell the story of the development of the access and inclusion programs at Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe. This year we are excited to celebrate the twelfth year of the Sculpture by the…


2019 Bondi Catalogue Essay: Celebrating 30 Years of Freedom

Posted: November 13, 2019 / Bondi Exhibition Catalogue Essays, Essays

Written by David Handley AM, Founding Director, Sculpture by the Sea ‘111 / 2019’ Celebrating 30 Years of Freedom Václav Fiala’s sculpture, ‘Tower for Jan Palach’, being exhibited in Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi this year, is a soaring tribute to the act of self-immolation by Jan Palach on 19 January 1969 in Prague’s Wenceslas…


Now you see me, now you don’t

Posted: August 22, 2019 / Essays

Written by Dr Nien Schwarz, Artist & Senior Lecturer, School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University, Perth. The scope and scale of the Perth and Sydney exhibitions is unprecedented anywhere in the world and requires diligent long-term planning and stakeholder commitment. At the end of February each year, Sculpture by the Sea moves into…