Australia

Michael Van Dam is sheet metal worker by trade. In 2013 Van Dam participated in in his first major exhibition, the Swell Sculpture Festival, at which he was awarded the Emerging Artist Award and the Artist Peer Award. His small work in the same festival won the Smalls People’s Choice Award. He has since participated at Sculpture at Sawmillers and Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2014, and his works have been acquired into various private collections throughout Australia. Van Dam’s sculptures are made from 4mm marine grade stainless steel chain. He works by welding the chain links together, which results in strong, durable and distinctive works. 

William Maguire is one of very few contemporary blacksmiths in Australia. He works with hot steel, forging and manipulating it, striving to create forms that are beautiful, genuine and new. He uses rare skills learnt during a four year apprenticeship, and over the years as a free spirited journeyman. He has worked with some of the best blacksmiths in Europe, Asia and America. In Australia overlooking the beautiful Hunter Valley farmland, he designs and forges the best of contemporary blacksmithing, creating iron with personality. Maquire was recently awarded a major stipend at Sculpture on the Greens, and in 2013 he exhibited at the Gosford Regional Gallery. His works have been collected by the University of Newcastle, Transfield Holdings and private collections throughout Australia and overseas. Maguire has exhibited in three solo shows and numerous group exhibitions and been awarded a large public art commission in Newcastle’s ex-BHP site, for completion in 2015.

Janaki Lele is an Indian born, Sydney based emerging artist. The infinite intriguing possibilities of paper are at the heart of her art practice. An architect by training, Lele traded in her architectural career for an adventurous one in paper art. An obsessive recycler, paper was an obvious medium of choice for her creations. She loves to experiment with various techniques in paper crafting and creation, and thus, her work is quite versatile. Her explorations in the world of paper so far have seen her create delicate cutworks, intricately textured and layered artworks and sculptures. Lele's work is usually a celebration of the world that we live in everyday, one that includes nature, creatures, colours and architecture. She strives to create art that will tread as lightly as possible on the environment. Perceptions of her Indian roots, Australian surroundings and architectural background have a huge influence on her art. She hopes that her art is able to strike a cord with people and generate curiosity, amusement and communication.

Ian Swift was born in Inverell, NSW in 1952 and currently lives in the Blue Mountains in NSW. He completed a Bachelor of Art, majoring in sculpture, at the University of New England in 1989. The following year Swift participated in his first group exhibition at First Draft Gallery, which was followed by numerous group and solo exhibitions. He has been awarded numerous prizes for his artistic practice, including the Sculpture by the Sea Site Specific Prize in 2002 and Blue Mountains Sculpture Prize in 2001.

Swift is renowned for his ability to create unique pieces using recycled materials and commonly discarded items such as industrial moulds, furniture parts, wood, plastics and very often the totally unexpected in his quest to produce distinctive one-off sculptural works that can often be simultaneously humorous and pointed in their commentary. 

Growing up in the Goldfields in the seventies, a career in art was not deemed to be a serious career option. Kerrie trained as a nurse, juggling working full time with as many visual art workshops as possible in Lake Grace. In 1997 the community of Lake Grace was offered an opportunity to take part in a pilot program with Curtin University to do an Art and Design course, which Argent eagerly undertook. She was then offered a position to continue her associate degree and ten years later Argent had her degree in Art and the ability to prioritize her practice. Her work has since been acquired in various national and international private collections. Argent creates art out of everyday disposable materials, experimenting with forms and enjoying the audience response to objects composed with items usually thrown away. Argent has had five solo exhibitions since graduating, as well as a number of group exhibitions including Sculpture by the Sea in Bondi, Cottesloe, and Aarhus. She was awarded the Western Australian Sculptor Scholarship alongside fellow artist Elaine Clocherty at Cottesloe in 2014.

Carla Gottgens studied at the College of Fine Art, graduating with a major in photography. Having exhibited around Australia over the past 15 years, Gottgen’s work to date spans the photographic, installation and sculptural genres. Of her photographic installation work at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2014, Gottgens say: "They are here to oversee and protect. Often unnoticed, hidden and shunned. Friend or foe? They are the guardians."

Elyssa Sykes-Smith has always been interested in the human figure as subject matter and continually returns to this theme. She is interested in exploring the physical, anatomical and technical challenges faced when working with the subject and believes in the communicative and expressive power that a simple pose or gesture of a figure can make. Sykes-Smith takes second hand wooden frames and off-cuts which are cut into random pieces and then she uses the pieces as they jump out at her. This technique has allowed her to explore the geometric and spatial aspects of the figure. Sykes-Smith has recently completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) at the National Art School. She has been awarded several prizes including the Sculpture by the Sea Clitheroe Foundation Mentorship in 2012.

Born in Williamstown, Victoria in 1946, Peter Tilley now lives and works in New South Wales. Tilley received a Certificate of Art and Ceramics from the Newcastle School of Art and Design, NSW and was also privately trained as a sculptor. He was awarded his Master of Philosophy (Fine Art) from Newcastle University. Still-life has been the primary focus of Tilley's recent work and remains a current influence. Drawn to the spatial relationships of scale and context, Tilley continues to investigate the connection of objects and figures as they are precisely staged by the artist. His work investigates the human condition in our contemporary world. He uses animals as avenues for affection, patience and compassion that are not always available in human relationships. They also serve as a metaphor for human behaviour and personality. Tilley's exhibiting history is extensive, with over 70 group shows and 20 solo exhibitions to his name. He has exhibited in Sculpture by the Sea regularly since 2004, including Sculpture by the Sea, Aarhus, Denmark in 2009 and 2011.

James Nguyen is a Sydney based artist who explores the many contradictions of the body and the object via a range of material and conceptual devices. He completed his undergraduate studies at the National Art School and is currently exploring the cinematic potential of objects and performance art in his MFA at the Sydney College of the Arts. “These small works are material and process driven counterparts to the skywriting inscriptions. They act as models for and against the idea of absence and transience”. James Nguyen

Born in Lake Macquarie, NSW, Braddon Snape began his University studies in Newcastle in 1993. His time at the University of Newcastle culminated in the attainment of a Master of Fine Art in 1999. During his studies Braddon was awarded the Joe Punshon Memorial Prize for Sculpture in 1993, the Macquarie Manufacturing Post Graduate Award for Sculpture in 1998 and was a finalist in the National Tertiary Art Prize, Hobart, 1994. Snape has become an established Australian sculptor creating large-scale works. Snape has also been selected in various National awards, including the McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award 2007 and the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 2009. His work has been widely collected in Australia, Great Britain, China, USA and Korea. In 2012 Snape was invited as one of five International artists to participate in a residency in Seoul, South Korea, to create a large-scale work for the International Sculpture Festa 2012. This is the seventh time he has exhibited at Sculpture by the Sea.

Ron Robertson-Swann is actively involved in the arts in Australia as a

sculptor, teacher and advocate. Robertson-Swann studied sculpture

with Lyndon Dadswell at the National Art School in Sydney, with

Anthony Caro and Phillip King at the St Martin’s School of Art in

London and was an Assistant to Henry Moore. He has exhibited

extensively in both Australia and overseas, and his works are

included in all major public Australian collections. He has educated

as Head of the Sculpture Workshop at the Canberra School of Art

and the National Art School in Sydney. In 2002 Robertson-Swann

was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for service to the arts in

Australia.

Ratimir Marijan (Ron) Gomboc was born in Slovenia in 1947 and attended school in Croatia before immigrating at the age of 13 with his family to Western Australia. Gomboc went on to study sculpture and printmaking at the Perth Technical College, as well as painting and drawing at Midland Tech. Gomboc's various awards include the Swan Citizen of the Year Award, 1991; the Western Australian Week Citizen of the Year Award for his contribution to Arts and Culture, 1993; and the Centenary Medal for outstanding commitment to the community in raising the awareness of art. In 2010 Gomboc became a member of the Sculpture by the Sea Decade Club for exhibiting ten times in Bondi and last year he became a member of the Sculpture by the Sea Decade Club in Perth for exhibiting ten times in Cottesloe. He has had numerous exhibitions overseas and represented Australia by invitation at the 2010 Melanesian Art Festival, New Caledonia, as Artist in Residence. In 2011 Gomboc was selected to represent Australia at the Tenth Anniversary of the Goyang Sculpture Symposium in South Korea. In 2012, he was selected to represent Australia at the Qingdao-Seoul Stone Sculpture Symposium in Qingdao China.

The work of Sydney based sculptor Morgan Shimeld, is primarily concerned with the abstraction, construction and manipulation of pure form. He works intuitively in a creative and meditative process striving to find a natural sense of balance, strength, and elegance in the complex arrangement of abstracted minimalist forms. Shimeld’s sculptures, constructed out of fabricated or cast bronze or steel, hold a powerful presence as well a subtle quality of understated beauty. Working from small to large scale, Shimeld’s sculptures translate well to any scale with universal characteristics. His aim is to a draw the viewer in, creating a relationship between the spectator and the space in between. Walking around Shimeld’s work will give the experience of unique disposition and sense of presence of each piece.

Orest Keywan was born in Marienbad, on the Czech German border, in 1944. In 1965, Keywan arrived in Sydney and the following year entered the National Art School in Sydney, where he studied under Lyndon Dadswell. He currently lives and works in Sydney, Australia. Keywan, who is represented in public and private collections in both Australia and internationally, has been hailed by art critic Sebastian Smee as ‘one of the best sculptors we have’. Keywan has been exhibiting with Sculpture by the Sea every year since 1998 and is the only Australian to have won the major prize at Sculpture by the Sea twice. Keywan’s sculpture is set apart by a careful consideration of the interaction between viewer and sculpture, an elegant linearity and a unique engagement of space. What is often singled out in accounts of Keywan’s sculpture is his ability to suggest in a work a sense of space that extends far beyond the physical dimensions of each piece. Using whimsical linearity and a gentle irony, Keywan manages to engage the emptiness of his sculpture’s surrounding environment and conjures a sense of the ephemeral. As a result, Keywan’s body of work has been described as being at once part of this world yet also distinct from it.

The materials Deal uses in his works are reliant on the essence and attitude instilled in individual and collected objects. Individually the objects remain inanimate shapes and forms, inert and without rationale. Yet when crafted and embodied into co-existing relationships, these objects burst forward as amalgamated entities speaking of their nature, edifying an intrinsic mechanic beauty. Sam was born in 1978 growing up near Vaughan, a small town in Central Victoria. He was raised on a 60 acre farm in a remote valley surrounded by National Park forests and without electricity or town water. He deliberately chose an alternative approach into sculpture studying sciences and engineering at Latrobe and RMIT Universities. Deal continues to work from the farm and over time has established an off-grid solar-powered workshop full of his rare objects, scientific equipment and recycled industrial elements. “I rarely commence with a finished concept in mind. I much prefer being open to the creative process and the manner in which the objects naturally dictate how the piece evolves”. Sam Deal

Stephen King graduated from Sydney College of the Arts in 1979, where he gained a Diploma of Visual Arts with a printmaking major. In 1981 he travelled to London to study at St. Martins School of Art. King then returned to Walcha, NSW to live and work on his family’s sheep and cattle property. He continued his printmaking and gradually moved into making figurative sculpture using fallen timber. King’s subjects have ranged from generational change and continuity to the role of big business and religious ideals. He has also explored the business of farming and how man and nature struggle to find the right balance. King has exhibited extensively internationally and within Australia.

Brett Ashby studied Contemporary Media Practice at the University of Westminster, London, UK. Prior to his studies overseas, Ashby explored animation and art theory as an extension of his life-long love of art, both traditional and contemporary, through a BA in Animation and Interactive New Media at RMIT, Melbourne. As a young boy, Ashby explored the art of sketching and drawing houses alongside his builder father. He developed his skills, exploring painting and line art on objects such as doors, walls, musical instruments and framed works, then moving on to commissions to paint even larger surfaces such as cars, bridges, walls and furniture. Ashby grew up playing soccer, which developed into a semi-professional career which he would only give up for his art practice. Today he integrates the ideas of human physical movement through his love of travel, adventure, sports and culture within his artistic philosophy for both sculptural and 2D works. Ashby’s artistic exploration of places and spaces focuses on documenting and gathering the natural and potential energy within his reality.

Ken Unsworth was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1931 and currently lives and works in Sydney. He attended school both in Melbourne and Sydney, studying at the University of Melbourne, Melbourne Teacher’s College and the National Art School of Sydney. Unsworth has held several teaching positions including Lecturer in Art at Bathurst Teacher’s College; Lecturer and Head of Art Teacher Education at the Tasmanian School of Art; and Lecturer in Sculpture at Sydney College of Advanced Education. Unsworth has held numerous solo exhibitions in Australia and overseas, including a major survey exhibition at the Art Galley of New South Wales in 1998. He has participated in major international exhibitions including the Paris Biennale, 1985; Magiciens de la Terre, Paris, 1989; and the Biennale of Istanbul, Turkey, 1995. 

Michael Purdy was born in 1964 and studied landscape architecture at UNSW Sydney. He grew up on Sydney Harbour and his relationship to the sandstone and, as a keen surfer, to the sea have resulted in works that speak about the many possibilities of this beautiful material. Colour, surface, pattern, form and texture all play a part in Michael’s tactile sculptures, from large outdoor installations and corporate interiors to domestic scale interiors and smaller one-off pieces.Years of experimentation have allowed Purdy to make sandstone appear to do things it isn’t meant to do. Exploration of the resulting possibilities has led to four major awards at Bondi Sculpture by the Sea, the 2014 Urban Growth Acquisitive Prize at University of Western Sydney Sculpture Award and Exhibition, and many high profile commercial commissions.

Akira Kamada is a sculptor and installation artist whose central concern is the impact of human behaviour on the environment, combined with an artistic respect and reverence for the beauty of natural materials. Born in Japan in 1955, Kamada studied photography and painting before immigrating to Australia in 1987. While working as a landscape gardener, specialising in contemporary Japanese garden design, he studied ceramics and sculpture and began exhibiting in group shows and public exhibitions from the early 2000s. Kamada first entered Sculpture by the Sea Bondi in 2006, receiving the Clitheroe Foundation Emerging Artists’ Mentor Program Scholarship in 2008. He has exhibited regularly in most major sculpture shows throughout Sydney since then. Having moved to Jervis Bay (NSW) area in early 2014, Kamada looks forward to combining his artistic practice with a more sustainable lifestyle.

Stephen Marr obtained a scholarship to attend the National Art School in Newcastle, and then travelled extensively throughout Asia. He was astounded by the ‘living art’ he encountered there, from the painting and carving that decorated houses and boats and the most everyday objects. He returned to Australia inspired to build a simple, alternative energy house in the bush with his bare hands and a chainsaw. Setting up a kiln and crude pottery, and teaching ceramics at the Technical College in Grafton, he soon made the move to the big smoke. Since then, Marr has built upon this narrative, exploring all forms of mediums and techniques. Recently this has been expressed through combining painting and sculpture. “Lately I have been carving figures of increasing simplicity; the pieces have a humorous primitive feel, very tactile and sensuous”. Stephen Marr

Self-taught, Gillings has been exhibiting for over 20 years. Much of her art is a consequence of asking questions and experimenting, making and imagining, pulling things apart and putting them back together, both visually and literally. From detailed realism to large-scale sculptural installations, the artist investigates the presentation of consumption and loss. By recycling materials ordinarily thrown away, Gillings resurrects them to amplify our assumption that they are endless. Discarded plastic cutlery, for instance, becomes a contemporary midden (Sculpture by the Sea 2012), discarded plastic cups and containers catch dripping water from a cliff face and mimic melting icicles (Sculpture by the Sea 2010). Through sculpture, printmaking and painting, Gillings attempts to send a subtle message, often with humour and word play, about how we conduct ourselves on this planet.

Robert Barnstone received a Masters of Architecture from the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University in 1991. He is a practicing architect engaged in the exploration of the boundaries between sculpture and building. In both architecture and sculpture Barnstone experiments with new applications to envelope design, framing techniques and material uses. His sculptural works investigate architectural space and structure. Some of Barnstone’s installations include Prone at the Socrates Sculpture Park in New York City, the Narrative Forest, CapArts in Providence, Rhode Island and Once Removed, Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi and Cottesloe. Stretch “came from a series of drawings of forms and led to an exploration of layered steel to capture the aspect of void in the piece”. Robert Barnstone

Thomas Quayle has spent the past five years honing his creative abilities through various forms of study which culminated in him graduating from the National Art School with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours). His recent achievements and development have provided him the opportunity to work in a studio in South West Sydney. Quayle’s works are predominantly in the ceramic medium, creating sculptures of various dimensions, however he also draws and paints in oils. Quayle’s work probes the nature of human experience and emotion, touching on subjects such as violence, desire, loneliness, and ostracism. His work is influenced by life events such as coming out as homosexual and the powerless feeling of viewing a violent act and being incapable of action.

Founded in 2012 by Mark Nixon and George King, NEON is an award winning design practice that seeks to explore new territories between architecture, design and art. They do not buy into a particular design style or philosophy. They work without preconceptions to analyse each project independently in order to ascertain its unique opportunities and challenges and create a design that is often surprising, but always relevant. George King is a chartered architect who has worked extensively in the UK and internationally. He is experienced in designing projects in a wide range of type, size and scale and was part of the design team responsible for the London 2012 Olympic Aquatic Centre. He received his bachelor degree from the University of Liverpool and his Masters from UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture. Mark Nixon is a chartered architect who studied for his bachelor degree at the University of Bath and the TUM in Munich and his Masters at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Nixon’s wide-ranging professional experience includes working for various design focused practices in London and Italy on projects at all stages, from concept through to completion. He is interested in a multidisciplinary approach to architecture.

As a practicing sculptor for the past 25 years, Philip Spelman works in both painted steel and unique cast and fabricated bronze. He is actively engaged in national and international exhibitions and commissions, and his sculptures are held in many important public, private and corporate collections, nationally and internationally. His works are abstract constructions where elements balance, tumble and float, creating positive and negative compositions of space, light and shade. The sculptures are memorable for their vibrant colours which give luminosity and depth, creating stunning silhouettes within their environment. Inspiration for his work is derived from many sources including urban industrial landscapes and architecture. “This work is an abstract composition of outcomes, creating elements that tumble and float. The sculpture uses vibrant colour to achieve luminosity and depth. Inspiration for this work is derived from urban industrial landscapes, architecture, and the utilitarian object”. Philip Spelman

John Petrie is a Sydney based sculptor working primarily in stone. He has won several awards and is represented in collections at Tweed Regional Gallery, Thursday Plantation Sculpture Park and Macquarie University. He has works held in collections in France and the USA. In 2009 he won the competition for the Newcastle City Council Commission for the memorial sculpture for the ground of the Pasha Bulker. This work has now become almost an iconic feature of the Newcastle beach landscape. In 2011 he was artist in Residence at Australian Botanic Garden and in 2012 was only Australian participant in the International Stone Sculpture Project, Iksan, South Korea. In 2013 he was invited to participate in the seventh International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art at Pedvale Open-Air Museum Latvia in 2014. For this he created a large work out of boulders and cast iron. The Australian landscape and in particular the boulder are the primary influences in his work. His works link the human figure and the landscape.

Koichi Ishino was born in Japan, immigrated to Australia in 2009 and now lives and works in NSW. Ishino graduated from Kyoto City University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1976 and has been a full time artist for over 25 years. He has participated in Sculpture by the Sea in Bondi and Cottesloe regularly since 2001 and was awarded the Waverley Council Mayor’s Prize at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi in 2009. Ishino has gained an international reputation as an artist, having completed numerous significant public international commissions and has been the recipient of numerous prizes including the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art Award in 1997 and the Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art Award in 1995. Ishino’s work is characterized by smooth mirror surfaces of stainless steel paired with stone. Throughout his career, Ishino has been developing original inlay techniques. In his work, materials of completely different qualities come together as one fabricated form.

In collaboration with Carterwilliamson Architects, Nuala Collins and Ben Peake. Linda Matthews is a founding member of Carterwilliamson Architects. Her background in graphic arts has led her to undertake a doctorate concerned with the development of architectural and urban design methodologies and she has developed a place based, site-specific method for generating building façade colour and form. She was recently awarded a travelling scholarship to attend the Venice Architecture Biennale. Nuala Collins has a rich and multidisciplinary design background. Collins’ main focus for the past ten years has been architecture, which has taken her from New Zealand to Switzerland, Denmark and Australia. To keep her practice diverse, alongside architecture Collins has worked in film, set, costume, exhibition and product design. Ben Peake joined Carterwilliamson Architects in 2013 after completing his bachelor of Design in Architecture at the University of Technology Sydney, where he was awarded Graduate of the Year by the Australian Institute of Architects.

Hugh McLachlan trained as a Gold and Silversmith at RMIT, Melbourne in the mid-1970’s and in 1980 established McLachlan Studio with his wife Mary in rural Tasmania. Making designer jewellery for McLachlan is like making sculpture in miniature. He has found that his physical environment and the years of transforming complex three-dimensional forms into wearable pieces of jewellery has had a big impact on the way he approaches sculpture. The polished surface is increasingly becoming an important element for McLachlan, marine grade stainless steel highly polished to a mirror finish. His sculpture has the ability to contain form and create space at the same time through the illusion of the reflected surface. It explores how light plays with our perception of the world through reflection, distortion and the way we see ourselves in this illusion of a new environment. In 2011 McLachlan received the inaugural Dick Bett Memorial Invitation Subsidy for a Tasmanian Artist to exhibit at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi. He is represented in numerous collections including the NGA and has participated in many solo and joint exhibitions both in Australia and overseas.

Elaine Miles is a Melbourne based artist working in installation, sculpture and performance. Her exhibitions and commission history is extensive within Australia and overseas and includes over 85 exhibitions at artist run spaces and other venues such as the Sydney Arts Festival, the National Museum of Singapore, Roulette Experimental Sound Space (New York), Melbourne Recital Centre, Federation Square, Wagga Wagga Regional Art Gallery (The National Glass Centre) and various state run Craft Councils. Her sculptural installations have been included in several National Sculpture Competitions and in 2012 Miles completed her first major permanent outdoor art commission within the City of Wyndham titled “Indoor/Outdoor”. She has taken up sculpture and glass residencies in Germany and USA and holds degrees in Ceramic Design, Applied Arts (hons), Fine Arts (masters) and PhD in Fine Arts and is currently an Associate Lecturer in Fine Arts at Monash University. Elaine Miles was the winner of the 2008 Civic Choice Award in the prestigious Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture Award and was also the feature of an ABC documentary, Artists At Work. Miles’ artwork appears in numerous public and private collections in Australia and America.

Geoffrey Drake-Brockman specialises in interactive robotic and optical installations, in addition to working with large-scale metal fabrication and other sculptural media. Drake-Brockman was born in Woomera, South Australia in 1964 and is based in Perth, Western Australia. He studied Computer Science at The University of Western Australia before completing a Masters degree in Visual Arts at Curtin University. The artist has been exhibiting since 1986 with shows in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Singapore, Denmark, New York, and London. He has shown work at the National Gallery of Australia, the Singapore Art Museum, the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Sculpture by the Sea in Bondi, Cottesloe, and Aarhus (Denmark) and has received the Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award. His public art commissions include the robotic sculpture Totem at the Perth Arena, and Spiral at the Western Australian Police Headquarters.

Grahame Wilson has played with form and function for the last 35 years in his professional life as a sail maker and marine trimmer, his credo being “I don’t do ugly!”. There is rarely a straight line nor a symmetrical side on a boat and so there is an unwritten law, “if it looks right then it is… usually!”. Wilson has taken this attitude into his next 'phase of life', that of a sculptor. He has chosen, always, to be a gentleman.

Nicholas Uhlmann is a sculptor living and working in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. He was born in 1974. He completed a BA Visual Art in 2002, majoring in sculpture, at the Adelaide College of the Arts. Whilst still a student, Uhlmann invented a distinctive method of wrapping steel armatures in layers of thin metallic strips. Since then he has developed and refined this organic constructivist technique through the creation of over 150 sculptures. He has held eight solo shows and exhibited in over 50 group shows and outdoor sculpture awards throughout Australia and overseas. Within the last five years his work has proved successful in being scaled up for the public realm, including the installation of three large-scale sculptures for Housing SA’s UNO apartment development in the Adelaide CBD. Recently he has been awarded the Oz Minerals Copper Sculpture Award and won first prize in the Richard Cohen Memorial Sculpture Competition. He is about to embark on the creation of five outdoor sculptures for the New Royal Adelaide Hospital, winning major public art funding from Arts SA.

Born in 1975 in Sydney, Linton Meagher studied art at the Julian Ashton School and at the University of Sydney, completing a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Fine Arts. Meagher’s work explores the ways that various disparate, mass-produced objects can be taken out of their usual context and presented in a way that challenges the viewer to question their wider meaning in society. Meagher’s semi-sculptural works use resin to cast objects in clear Perspex, thereby creating the effect of objects floating in space. By casting mass-produced items in resin, his work continues the exploration of consumerism, beauty, death and the impermanence of time. His works, such as those featuring imitation lipsticks cast in resin, prompt the viewer to contemplate our ideas of beauty in an age of consumerism. Meagher’s work is represented by galleries in Sydney, Hong Kong and London. He has had many exhibitions over the past decade and is represented by numerous private and corporate collections.

Julie Collins has been a professional exhibiting sculptor for over 25 years, specialising in large public art works. She is also a public art consultant, giving her understanding from both sides of projects. Derek John is a steel fabricator by trade, mastering many materials and processes. He is also a fabricator for numerous Australian sculptors including Simon Perry and John Kelly, helping them to achieve public projects. Collins and John have been collaborating on sculptural projects for 14 years. They have exhibited in 27 solo exhibitions and over 112 group exhibitions within Australia and overseas. Their public works are held within the City of Manningham in Victoria, Shunde in China and St Michael’s Catholic Church in Melbourne, amongst many other sites. Their works are also included in several significant private collections in Australia. The artist’s wish is that their work will help raise awareness of the vulnerabilities of our planet and the effects man has on it.

Mikaela Castledine has been working as a professional artist since 1992. She has participated in many solo and group shows in Perth winning several prizes. Born in the Wheatbelt of WA, Castledine grew up in the Perth hills in a family of artists and makers. She has qualifications in science and interior design, is a published writer and has been studying for a Masters in writing and literature. While Castledine is known for her two dimensional work in paper collage, since winning the 2013 Sculpture Scholarship at Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe she has been concentrating her attention on her three dimensional crochet work. “The one horned Indian rhinoceros, like most rhino species, are rare and endangered and will soon become as mythical as they were once believed to be”. Mikaela Castledine

Francesca Mataraga is an artist living and working in Sydney, Australia. Her work is cross-disciplinary and incorporates drawing, painting, photography, digital drawing, sculpture and installation. Her practice originates in painting and is situated within the tradition of abstraction, minimalism and post-minimalism. Her focus is three dimensional painting and it’s relationship to minimalism, installation, twentieth century abstraction and modernism with an emphasis on colour. Mataraga has exhibited in Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles and Berlin and has also been a finalist in several exhibitions and prizes including Sculpture by the Sea, Harbour Sculpture, the Sunshine Coast Art Prize 3D, the Tim Olsen Drawing Prize, the Blake Prize and Touring Exhibition, the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize and the Jacaranda Aquisite Drawing Award. Mataraga was awarded a PhD from COFA, UNSW in 2012. She has also completed a Master of Fine Arts (in painting) at the College of Fine UNSW in 2008, a Bachelor of Fine Arts (painting) at the National Art School in 2002 and a Bachelor of Arts – Art History and Theory (honours) at Sydney University in 1994. She has been an Artist in residence at Artspace, Culture at Work and Bundanon, and has been recipient of several significant grants and scholarships.