Congratulations to Dale Miles for his work Eternal Muse (2019) that has been selected as a finalist in the 2020 Tom Bass Prize for Figurative Sculpture.
The Tom Bass Prize is important and prestigious award that celebrates the human form and its influence on today’s sculptor. The Prize is an acknowledgement of the influence that Tom Bass had as one of Australia’s pre-eminent public sculptors.
In John McDonalds words “No artist has done more to shape the face of public art in Australia than Tom Bass. Both as a sculptor, and as an inspirational teacher of sculpture.”
In Tom Bass’ own words- “We do not do it because we are attached to the figurative. Nor do we do it because it is traditional though we do respect the innate value of tradition…Why is it necessary for us to go to the natural form in such an intense way? Because it is the accumulation of that knowledge of natural form as a primary source of our creative work. The alternative to that is to imitate the things that others have done, or to follow fashion.” – Tom Bass
Artists are invited to submit works that interpret ‘figurative’ broadly, however the inspiration must come from the figure.
This year’s prize will be judged by Ingrid Morley, Alex Seton and Jennifer Turpin. The exhibition of finalists will be at Juniper Hall, Paddington from 6 – 22 March 2020.
Opening Night & Prizes Announced: 5 March 2020
People’s Choice Prize: 25 March 2020
Artist Talks
There will also be two artist talks held on Sunday 8 March and Sunday 15 March from 2 – 4pm at Juniper Hall, Paddington. These are free events with all welcome. The artists will also be taking questions from the audience. For an up to date list of artists who will be speaking, please follow Tom Bass Facebook.
Dale Miles
Dale Miles is a Sydney based artist whose work encompasses a diverse range of approaches to sculpture that includes timber and stone carving, modelling, casting, timber and steel construction, drawing and painting. His work can be broadly described as pictorial sculpture and will often begin its life as a painting or drawing to then be fleshed out as a sculptural form that holds onto some of the properties of the two dimensional world. Miles likes to utilise the unique architectural and cultural forms that are particular to the Australian landscape as his subjects like huts, caravans, bus stops, chapels, sheds, bridges or in some cases a particular public sculpture.
Miles’ work for the last decade has focused on exploring new ways to expand on the lineage of relief sculpture. He is particularly interested in creating forms that contain both sculptural and relief language set in a space that allows the viewer to move behind the visual illusion and perceive the artworks mechanics and function on the eye. There is a playful and beguiling quality to Miles’ work that demands visual investigation from the viewer to unravel something that seems so other worldly and familiar at the same time.
He graduated from the National Art School in Sydney in 2006 with Honours and has studied Ancient and Renaissance Art in Italy and France. He has been the recipient of the Sculpture by the Sea Major prize at Cottesloe in 2016, the Helen Lempriere Scholarship in 2015, Storrier Onslow National Art School Paris Residency in 2012, a major public sculpture commission from the City of Sydney for Taylor Square in 2009 and won First prize for the Bowral sculpture Award in 2005 and the Waverly Art Prize in 2003. He is also an art educator who has lectured on Painting, Drawing and Sculpture at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Art School and is currently employed at Sydney Grammar School.
Images: Dale Miles, Eternal Muse (2019), hydrostone, pigment and wax, edition 3, 72 x 120 x 55 cm. Courtesy of the artist.