Figure and Form – Group Sculpture Exhibition

Sunny Art Centre is pleased to announce ‘Figure and Form’, a group exhibition of six sculptors bringing you a selection of artwork from UK based professionals, each individually displaying the power of sculptural form. In particular, the emphasis is placed on a critical revaluation of the ideas on both the human body and the human soul. Artists such as Antonio Lopez and Timothy Lees have reconnected with treatments of the body from the classical tradition and subverted them to 21st-century visions of form, beauty, strength and movement. At the same time, artists such as Dawn Rowland and Glynis Owen have interpreted through sculpture a different type of movement, that of the human soul. Their sculptures are often characterised by simple and hieratic lines, for they emphasise the emotional character of human nature. This exhibition aims to focus on the human figure and form in the context of a hyper-global and mechanised society by rediscovering and embracing the traditions of the sculptural analytical visions and approaches to understand the human body and soul.

Glynis Owen

Owen works with bronze and aluminium that feature abstract imagery exploring line, form and spatial relationships. Following her graduation from Goldsmiths College, she worked as an assistant to the sculptor Lynn Chadwick, produced small stone pieces for Tate Modern and wrote three books on sculpture techniques for the publisher Batsford. She has been commissioned to work in bronze and stone on large-scale public and private projects for important locations such as Alton College, Covent Garden Piazza and Stevenage & Stafford town centre. Her materials and their unique features are a constant fascination and exploring their intrinsic qualities, the choice of her materials is as important as the creative idea itself. She aims to express the human anatomy with the simplest and most direct use of line and form. Creating a balance between the characteristics of materials and the abstraction of the human image that fascinates her the most. 

Timothy Lees

Lees’s figurative works are impressive depictions of the female form, which reveals his knowledge regarding classical sculptural anatomy. In 2010, he won the Stone Federation of Great Britain Craftsmanship Award for working at Hanover Lodge and Regents Park. He spent his teenage years on the granite outcrops of the Seychelles where he learnt the skills of boat building and developed an interest in geology. Lees's love for stones and their precise and complex constructions naturally led him to turn his focus to sculpture. A period of intense work at the National Trust Statuary Workshop and the study of Roman sculpture has led to the development of his most recent work. His works are a combination of his deep knowledge of classical sculpture anatomy with an expressive command of form.

Dawn Rowland

Rowland’s stone sculptures explore the interdependence and fragility of human relationships and how these fit into the world around us. Also, by being a twin, she intuitively reflects on human duality. Hands, which have special significance, also feature prominently, for her they express a range of positive and negative emotions. Her stonework is often a product of the direct carving technique as this facilitates spontaneity, while other works include bronze castings. Rowland expresses her own personal and emotional experiences, with underlying feelings that are universally felt. She enjoys the differences that come from making a sculpture in bronze. By moulding, kneading and adding clay or pushing plaster to build up a sculpture she also adds dimensions to her sculptural language.

Gary Betts

Betts’s work with bronze focuses on the human form. He has exhibited in the UK, America and Asia. The basis of his art is his style, which conveys his insights and is frequently described as enigmatic. He has always explored the human form, but the idea behind the image has been his defining characteristic. Moreover, he has a unique ability in giving raw materials a voice which brings them to life.

Veda Hallowes

Hallowes produces art that concerns life enrichment and enhancement. Her sculptures are based on organic shapes from nature such as fruits, seeds, birds and butterflies. Veda intends the viewer to take part in the creative process by considering impossibility and fantasy. Her practice reflects on beauty, growth, and greater understanding of life’s mysteries as the bedrock of her work. She expects viewers to take from it whatever they like, either to smile and move on or to relate to the profound ‘other meanings’, which are explicit or implicit in the work, to engage the imagination and become co-creator, delighting in the impossible and fantastical.

Antonio Lopez

Over the past eighteen years, Antonio Lopez has developed a body of work concerned with mythology as the central theme of his figurative bronzes. He produces notable works featuring mythical characters from ancient Greece and Rome, including the Minotaur and Centaur. His figures are remarkable for conveying balance, weightlessness and movement and are characteristically 'unsmoothed’ gifting them with his uniquely textured style of sculpture. He captures the rawness of materials such as clay, wax or plaster with the expressive energy of spontaneous modelling and tool markings which, afterwards, are transferred onto the bronzes to create forms that convey movement and strength. Antonio’s work has featured in many collections around Europe, including the UK, but also in America and Hong Kong.