News
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,…
2022 Bondi Catalogue Essay: Artists in the time of COVID
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…
2019 Bondi Catalogue Essay: Celebrating 30 Years of Freedom
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…
2018 Bondi Catalogue Essay: Matthew Harding (1964 – 2018)
Written by Ken Scarlett OAM, Curator and Author. Between 1999 and 2017, Victorian artist Matthew Harding exhibited at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi, in nine exhibitions. In honour of Mathew’s career a tenth sculpture is being exhibited on the Bondi coastal walk this year, 2018. The premature death of any person is a tragedy, but the premature death…
2017 Bondi Exhibition Catalogue Essay: Sculpture by the Sea: At 21 – Coming of Age
Written by Emeritus Professor Sasha Grishin AM, FAHA, Australian National University. “Where should I go?” – Alice “That depends on where you want to end up.”– the Cheshire Cat Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass In 21 years, Sculpture by the Sea at Bondi has grown from a single-day event organised by…
2016 BONDI CATALOGUE ESSAY: 20 years of Sculpture by the Sea
Written by Geoffrey Edwards, Former Director, Geelong Art Gallery and former Senior Curator of Sculpture, National Gallery of Victoria. Geoffrey Edwards reflects on Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi and Cottesloe in the past 20 years. “I don’t think there is a piece of solid sculpture among the exhibits, they are nearly all tenuous types of things.” A…
2015 BONDI CATALOGUE ESSAY: Bequest Foot Forward
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Written by Emeritus Professor Sasha Grishin AM, FAHA A short History of the Helen Lempriere Scholarships Helen Lempriere Scholarships were first awarded at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2010. There are three scholarships given annually, one each – to an emerging, mid-career and senior sculptor – each worth $30,000 and designed to advance the sculptor’s…
2014 Bondi Exhibition Catalogue Essay: Rayner Hoff 1894-1937: Sculptor by the Sea
Written by Deborah Beck, Lecturer and Historian, National Art School. In 1928 Marks Park was a public reserve – a scrubby headland with breathtaking views over the Tasman Sea. It was this isolated headland and its surrounding beaches that attracted the British sculptor Rayner Hoff, and five years after his arrival in Australia, he purchased a small…
2013 Bondi Catalogue Essay: Bert Flugelman AM (1923-2013)
Written by Peter Pinson. ‘I find it unrewarding to be consistent. The world is full of interesting, funny, excruciating things. My attention wanders. My appetites change.’ Bert Flugelman, 1967 At first glance, the six-decade sculptural career of Bert Flugelman seems to have been adventurous, restless and diverse. Since the mid-1950s, Flugelman was always sharply aware of…
2012 Bondi Exhibition Catalogue Essay: An Introduction to Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2012, by Harry Nicolson
Written by Harry Nicolson, writer of the introduction for the first Sydney Biennale catalogue in 1973. Harry Nicolson gives an insight on the upcoming Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2012. We are pleased to have the writer of the introduction for the first Sydney Biennale catalogue in 1973, Harry Nicolson, write this years catalogue essay….
2011 Bondi Exhibition Catalogue Essay: Sculpture by the Sea: the first fifteen years
This is an edited version of John McDonald’s essay in the 232 page book ‘Sculpture by the Sea: the first fifteen years’ David Handley, the founder of Sculpture by the Sea, recalls that the entire budget of the first Bondi exhibition in 1997 was $11,000, of which $8,500 was spent on artists’ awards. The show…
2010 Bondi Exhibition Catalogue Essay: A Robust Art
By Dr. Michael Hill Author and Lecturer, National Art School, Sydney A recurrent motif in discussions of sculpture over the last forty years has been a suspicion of object-based monumentality, in contrast to more process-orientated and relational work. Underlying this is an erosion of confidence in the very idea that something might be worth monumentalising….
2009 Bondi Exhibition Catalogue Essay: From Bondi to Aarhus, Denmark
By Ken Scarlett Curator and writer for Australian Sculpture In June, 2009 Sculpture by the Sea went international for the first time. The site of this new venture was Aarhus, a city three hours from Copenhagen, Denmark, where, with a shoreline encompassing sand, rocks, lawn and forest it made a superbly beautiful setting for the…