Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is responsible for some of the most iconic works of sculpture in the world. Throughout Kusama’s prolific career her favourite motifs of pumpkins, polka dots and nets formed of infinitely repeating loops have taken the shape of room-filling installations, performance pieces, painting, poetry and large and small sculpture.

“The sculptures include abstract, figurative, representational and hyper-realistic works using a wide variety of materials such as steel, wood, stone, bronze, fibreglass and woven fibres…”

The Tom Bass Prize for Figurative sculpture was initiated to mark the 100th Birthday of Tom Bass AM (1916 – 2010), and is an acknowledgement of the influence Bass has had as one of Australia’s pre-eminent sculptors and educators.

Limestone is a fascinating material with many uses in the world of the arts as well as in lots of industrial, agricultural and construction areas…

“I first fell in love with sculpting when I visited Musée Rodin in Paris in 2019. I was mesmerised by the manipulation of form and material to capture the intricacies of human life and emotion…”

Known for work accumulating mass amounts of abandoned clothes, old photographs and other personal detritus, French artist Christian Boltanski’s work conversed with death and drew on themes of chance, loss and memory…

Unlike other forms of rock, soapstone can be found all over the world, and can be mined either industrially or by hand. It has a long history, and was carved by Indigenous peoples all over the world, to make all sorts of things…

“I need to make things. The physical interaction with the medium has a curative effect. I need the physical acting out. I need to have these objects exist in relation to my body...”

“Restrictions and fears provided a fertile soil for me to meditate on our fragile existence and I have created several sculptures and painting to express that. But for the same reason I couldn’t travel to my students and they couldn’t come to my studio especially during the last two European winters…”

“What my work is aiming at is, above all, realism. I pursue the inner, hidden reality, the very essence of objects in their own intrinsic fundamental nature; this is my only deep preoccupation…”

“At the beginning of 2020 I started to develop a new body of work considering eco-anxiety. However, emerging from a smoke-choked, apocalyptic summer and tumbling straight into the unpredictability of the global pandemic, what evolved was The State of Things: an amalgamation of the chaos that 2020 had to offer…”

“This exhibition by Japanese artists features works mainly in granite and steel. The works call to mind the tranquillity of drystone gardens so much loved in Japan…”

“It is only of late that I have grasped why it has always been so important to me: in fact when I mould, sculpt or shape a material, whether it be clay, stone, felt, glass or whichever, I become energetically and emotionally balanced…”

The Western Sydney University Sculpture Award and Exhibition consistently attracts significant talent from across Australia and overseas. This year, there are 20 Finalists on show across the WSU Campbelltown Campus.

“I see clay as a social media with its long history in human culture and its universal familiarity. It provides me with infinite possibilities of form and a surface on which to scratch, write and paint…”

We shine a spotlight on some current and upcoming sculpture exhibitions showing in Sydney.

“I work across assemblage, installation, collage, printmaking and photography. Most of my sculptures are assemblages, 3D and 2D pieces created from discarded and unwanted toys…”

“I love the escapism you get when creating something. I have been creative since I was a child, always making things…”

“A woven mesh not unlike medieval mail. A continuous piece of wire, forms envelop inner forms, yet all forms are visible (transparent). The shadow will reveal an exact image of the object.”

“Throughout its reign, the British Empire stole a lot of stuff. Today those objects are housed in genteel institutions across the UK and the world. They usually come with polite plaques. This is a series about the not-so-polite history behind those objects…”