Keizo Ushio’s Oushi Zokei Hexagonal (2014), Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2015. Photo: Clyde Yee.
Two new sculptures for the increasingly popular Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail are set to be unveiled in Tumbarumba and Talbingo over the next seven days.
Made of light-brown granite, a sculpture titled Oushi Zokei Hexagonal, made by one of Japan’s most significant sculptors, Keizo Ushio, represents a large bird spreading its wings.
It will be unveiled in Sir William Hudson Park, Talbingo, this Thursday (7 December) by State Member for Wagga Wagga Dr Joe McGirr and is the first sculpture to form part of a three-year leased public placement program, thanks to Snowy Hydro.
Keizo Ushio has enjoyed international success over 40 years with his spectacular and pioneering geometrical sculptures.
Influenced by the mathematics of the Mobius strip, typically a continuous one-sided surface that twists through 180 degrees, Keizo is recognised as a master for his carving of reversed loop forms, intertwining ribbons of textured and polished granite sculpted from single blocks of dense and heavy stone.
He is represented in public and private collections in Australia, and internationally, including at the Hakone Open Air Museum, Asago Sculpture Park, Japan; City of Perth, WA; ArtsACT Canberra; the Holmes a Court collection Vasse Felix, Margaret River, WA: and the Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail at Tooma.
He has exhibited at Sculpture Rocks, Sydney 2021; Sculpture by the Sea, Aarhus 2009 and 2011; Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 23 times since 1999; and will exhibit at Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe for the 20th time since 2005.
This is the second sculpture in Talbingo and joins April Pine’s Tidal Body, which was installed in April and forms part of the permanent Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail.
Planting a Trace, by Sui Jianguo, before bronze casting, Photo: Sui Jianguo.
Sui Jianguo of China created a sculpture titled Planting a Trace, which will occupy a permanent position on Tumbarumba’s Creekscape after it is unveiled next Tuesday (12 December) by NSW Legislative Council president Ben Franklin.
An artist who explores his unique understanding and recognition of creation, form, alternative media, alternative methods, and space-time, Sui received a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts from the Shandong University of Arts in 1984 and a Master of Arts in Sculpture from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1989.
He has been praised by art critics for being a “pioneer venturing to the farthest reaches of Chinese sculpture”.
Sui has participated in many group and solo exhibitions, including at the Museum Beeldenaan Zee, The Hague, Holland (2011); JGM Gallery, Paris (2010); World Expo Shanghai 2010; Museum, Beijing, China (2009); Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, China (2007); and Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Manila, the Philippines (2006).
The Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail is Australia’s newest major public sculpture collection, with more than 35 artworks at eight locations along 150 kilometres of the Snowy Valleys Way – the stunning back road between Sydney and Melbourne.
A permanent public collection of sculptures by renowned artists from across Australia and the world, the collection is spread across the towns of Adelong, Batlow, Talbingo, Tumbarumba, the hamlet of Tooma and the Tumbarumba wine region cellar doors at Courabyra Wines, Johansen Wines and Obsession Wines.
The project was conceived in partnership with the local communities and the Sydney-based not-for-profit organisation Sculpture by the Sea as part of the socioeconomic recovery of the Snowy Valleys after the 2019-20 bushfires, which burnt 48 per cent of the Snowy Valleys local government area.
The Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail has been co-funded by the Australian and NSW governments under the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund.
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