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.

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.

Enjoy!

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.

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:

(The above flyer prints nicely on an A4 sheet of paper if you click on it, then select ‘Print’ from your web browser.)

You’ll find a brand spanking ‘All New’ pair of sculptures by me exhibited during the 2011 South Australian Living Artist (SALA) Festival. This year’s SALA festival is ‘bigger and better’ with 4,132 South Australian artists exhibiting in 543 venues statewide.

One of the exhibitions not to be missed is called ‘Two Septics’ and anyone in Australia or the UK who is of a certain vintage will understand the reference, which we are using to refer to Rebecca Whittemore and me, two expatriate American artists in Adelaide. In this cutting-edge exhibition Rebecca is showing works from her stunning ‘Private Universe’ series of high contrast, black and white scanograms, and I’m thrilled to be exhibiting with Rebecca. Her works were most recently exhibited in the United States.

My two sculptures in ‘Two Septics’ resulted from an introspective period where I wondered what makes any artwork ‘important.’ The art world seems to be completely subjective, without an objective bone in its body. What makes an artwork important, is it exhibitions at prestige galleries, sales, reviews in art journals, or some mix of black magic and luck? Maybe I had a Bruce Nauman moment by naming my two sculptures ‘Important Work.’ Perhaps time will tell.

Toorak Village Sculpture Exhibition 2011

My small indoor sculpture ‘As it is’ was exhibited at the 2011 Toorak Village Sculpture Exhibition from May 1st to 31st.

Before ‘As it is’ most of my metal sculptures were painted or powder-coated as the final process, which obscures the actual metal surface. While making this sculpture I initially planned to paint it as well, but the lovely colours resulting from the steel manufacturing processes, and the heat discolouration from my welding, appealed to me and convinced me to leave it ‘as is.’

'As it is'

Rick will be exhibiting 6 new cast bronze sculptures at Adelaide’s Aptos Cruz Galleries from 16 September until 10 October, 2010.

Also exhibiting at this ‘evolving elements’ Spring Sculpture exhibition will be Gerry King, Faustas Sadauskas, Judy Elliot, Edols Elliot, Barrie Tucker, George Andric, and Nicholas Uhlmann.

Rick’s small bronze sculptures represent a new direction for him, complementing his abstract and geometric  fabricated, painted steel sculptures. These works are autobiographical with each of the 6 sculptures representing a significant development in his childhood, young adulthood, and migration to Australia.

With these sculptures Rick uses the vowels (A, E, I, O, U ‘and sometimes Y’) as the metaphor for the works.

Aptos Cruz Galleries are located at 147 Mt Barker Rd, Stirling, SA 5152. Ph +61 8 8370-9011, email: info@aptoscruz.com, web: www.aptoscruz.com

More than a year in the making, in early December 2009 Rick installed his commissioned sculpture ‘Pythagoras’ Garden’ at a private home in Adelaide.

My small painted stainless steel sculpture, ‘Time For a Good Cry’, is on exhibit during the 2010 Toorak Village Sculpture Festival. You can see it at ‘Myka’ at 466 Toorak Road, Toorak.

Find more info about the exhibition at: http://www.tooraksculpture.com.au/