2020 FESTIVAL WINNERS

Stephen King creates abstract constructions mostly based on the grid using Australian Hardwoods sourced off his farm.

Stephen King lives and works in Walcha, NSW, and makes both carved, figurative and constructed sculptures. King has exhibited in Sculpture by the Sea 20 times and he won the major prize in 2013.

King studied at Sydney College of the Arts and after graduating moved to London to study printmaking at St Martin’s School of Arts. Upon his return to Australia in the mid 1980’s he decided to move back to the family property in Walcha, NSW where he continues to live.

As a farmer King uses the everyday of rural life to give an insight to the industry of working the land. By the late 1980’s his linocuts were questioning how the land is farmed. “The land seems to imprint something on what you are doing.” King states “Australia itself affects what artists do. Living wit¬h the land, you are a bit closer to whatever that is”.

King employs humour and storytelling in his work to address the more serious questions about our relationship with the environment. As a grazier King has become interested in genetics and the continuum of life. Moving from carving into lino to using a chainsaw to sculpt logs; the land continues to influence his art. In the home paddock of his property you find numerous large sculptures, one in particular is called Generation Stick, it stands 10 metres high and is made up of life size figures hunched one on the other. It suggests the saga of human existence, the effort of each generation to support the next, of each individual to support another. King has also dealt with impact of climate change. The work Fallout was inspired by the fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster with the wooden structure’s concept and construction morphing over a number of years.

These distinctively Australian pieces find their place in rural as well urban settings. Currently he is working on non-figurative constructions which open and close as you move around them and suggest the idea of the infinite rather than the closed and finite shape of the figure.

King has exhibited extensively in commercial and regional galleries within Australia and internationally since 1979. His reputation is supported by the huge body of work produced for the public and private commissions throughout NSW and his representation of Australia at the Inami Wood Carving Symposium in 2007.
The chainsaw and chisel have always been Stephen’s favoured tools, and the wood he uses – for both his figurative and constructive works – is fallen timber collected from ‘Blackfellows Gully’.

“Sometimes the wood determines what I make but mostly I have an idea and find the timber to fit,” he said. “I love the look of timber and how it greys with age, and I understand working with wood. Stringybark loves to split but I’m good at making stringybark behave so if you can make stringybark behave you can make any timber behave.”

Stephen mentors Ben Tooth who has a sculpture at Undercliff.

Stephen has just been awarded the SxS 2020 Helen Lempriere Scholarship of $30,000, shared with two other sculptors. The Helen Lempriere Scholarships are designed to advance individual artists’ careers by enabling them to travel, study and undertake opportunities to further their artistic development. The scholarships are awarded to emerging, mid career and senior Australian sculptors chosen by the exhibition’s curatorial panel.

The raw power and ferocity of nature, blackened bark, branches stripped bare of their foliage to reveal a new kind of beauty. Shape and form emerge from the destruction passed, to reveal a new beginning, new growth and life.

Amanda is a local artist with blacksmith skills. She was last year’s winner of the 2325 Prize and the Acquistional Prize. Her sculpture, Lost Language is now situated near the information sign. The works she submitted last year were the first art works she ever created. When she was announced the winner, she was out fighting fires with the RFS and arrived to receive her prize with a blackened face and in her RFS. Uniform.

The hammer represents the impact that Ross River Fever has on your body. Strong one day, bent twisted and fatigued the next. Carved from a gum tree branch and a found, unearthed hammer head. I’ve got nothing more to give… ehhh the fatigue!

Rode has been making & creating for as long as he can remember. He excelled in Art at school but followed tradesman professions after leaving school, working with stone, carpentry, metalwork and custom furniture. Rode did car and boat restorations, home and restaurant fit outs and renovations and food truck and camper van building.

Rode and his family moved to the Wollombi Valley in 2017 to pursue his ambition of becoming a recognised sculptor.

Rode’s broad & immense skills working with varied mediums puts him in good stead to bring to life his creative ideas & inspirations.

His work consolidates illusions and realities of the mind that become tangible through sculpture. With space being an absolute, Johan proposes a deep exploration of the form within the space, by transforming feelings and ideas into compositions that aim to stimulate new perception.

As an artist of Colombian heritage, Johann Tovar-Carrera has developed a visual language that hybridises his cultural past with that of the traditions and lexicons of modern and contemporary Australian art. Tovar-Carrera has a Bachelor and a Master of Fine Arts from the National Art School, majoring in sculpture.

His work is held by Wesenberg Sculpture Park in Germany and private collections in Australia, Germany, Switzerland, and Colombia. A Little quirk, he always prices his sculptures to include his lucky number of 69. It worked!

Gavin Vitullo is a Hunter based Artist whose sculptural forms of carved wood, reclaimed materials and organic matter examine the existential complexities of creation, destruction & coexistence.

Monument to the Fallen honours the death of old life & the birth of new life, through a poetic amalgamation of salvaged, sustainable & organic materials.