Rick Clise – news

From 26 February until 29 April 2012 fifty-five artists will be exhibiting sculptures at the Heysen Sculpture Biennial in the Adelaide Hills. The works range from representative figurative works, to ephemeral, abstract, and conceptual pieces.

My sculpture, ‘The Agonising Paralysis of Choice’ is one of the works:

From my website: Do I choose the safe, known option? Or risk the consequences of the unfamiliar and uncertain? What if I choose wrongly? Of could I have made a better choice?

For this same exhibition I had the great honour of being entrusted to complete the multi-part sculpture for my good friend and collaborator James Martin, who passed-away from cancer in October last year. While he was sick, but still had the strength to work, James cast the 5 heads using glass-reinforced cement. We think he planned on making 30 to 50 of the heads, but wasn’t able to make more than 5 due to his illness.

James had been the Head of Sculpture at Adelaide Central School of Art. He was my teacher there, and in the past couple years we collaborated on several public art projects, but always came second. I’m sure that we would have won the next project!

James was an incredibly talented and well-respected figurative sculptor and teacher. He created the 13 story tall Merlion at Singapore’s Sentosa Island, and was the sculptor for the larger-than-life size cast bronze Vietnam Veterans’ War Memorial at Adelaide’s Torrens Parade Ground, to name just two of his many successes. He was somewhat shy about the Giant Prawn that he made as a tourist attraction at Ballina, NSW. I also thank Karen and Neville and Clifford for their contributions and suggestions about completing the works; and Tim and David for their excellent critical contributions and their strong backs, during the installation process at The Cedars.

The Heysen Sculpture Biennial will be opened at 6:30pm on Sunday 26 February by Nick Mitzevich, Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Vale James Martin.

From 262 entries 37 finalists were selected for the 2011 Deakin University Contemporary Sculpture Award, with my small cast bronze sculpture, ‘I is for I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag‘, being one of them.

The exhibition runs from Wednesday 2 November to 10 December 2011 at the Deakin University in Melbourne, with the opening and awards presentation on Wednesday 2 November from 6pm to 8pm. I hope you can visit.

I appreciate feedback about my website and I’ve now updated the images for Current Works | 2010 – My Formative Vowels. Some of the images of my small cast bronze pieces had problems, which have now been resolved.

Enjoy!

I’m excited that my conceptual/object entry for the Palmer Sculpture Biennial 2012, ‘In Case of Emergency, Break Glass’, was successful and that I’ll be one of about 25 participating artists next year.

This exhibition is managed by Adelaide artists Greg Johns and Gavin Malone, and is truly unique. It’s sited on 400 hectares of Greg Johns’ property a little over an hour’s drive west/north/west of Adelaide in the ‘rain shadow’ area outside of Adelaide. Greg has been re-vegetating his property with indigenous species of grasses, shrubs and trees, restoring the land to what it was like before being denuded by too many sheep run on it.

Palmer is home to many of Greg’s massive outdoor sculptures. Yet the land is so vast that even his 8m tall sculptures aren’t imposing in the setting

The exhibition dates are during the latter part of March, coinciding with the Adelaide Festival. More details will be shared soon.

If you are in Sydney in late August to early September please visit the Willoughby Sculpture Prize 2011 at ‘Incinerator’, 2 Small Street, Willoughby, NSW. Willoughby is on Sydney’s north side.

My 5 part outdoor sculpture, ‘A Grove of Arboreal desalinus‘, is one of the finalists in this exhibition. I’ll post a photo once the work is installed.

The exhibition opening and awards presentation is at 3pm on Saturday 20 August. RSVP details on the flyer below.

For more details of the exhibition see the council website: http://www.willoughby.nsw.gov.au/Whats-On/willoughby-sculpture-prize-2011/

Thanks, Rick

The ‘Grove of Arboreal desalinus‘ installed: