Image above: Ron Robertson-Swann Nijinsky 2020 steel, painted 195 x 215 x 215 cm, seen with the artist. Image courtesy of the artist.
We are pleased to share that Australian Galleries artists Ron Robertson-Swann, Ayako Saito, Michael Snape, David Horton and Harrie Fasher were chosen to participate in this year’s Sculpture in the Vineyards, Wollombi Valley Sculpture Festival. Showing annually since 2002, this regional sculpture festival is the longest running one of its kind in New South Wales.
Ron Robertson-Swann has presented two works at the Festival, notably his work Nijinsky, located at Laguna Hall, which has received the Governor’s Prize. Offered for the first time this year, this prize chooses one sculpture to be exhibited at the Government House sculpture garden for up to one year after the conclusion of the Festival. Nearby in the Old Fireshed Gallery, Robertson-Swann has his work Entwined on show.
Ron Robertson-Swann Nijinsky 2020 steel, painted 195 x 215 x 215 cm.
Ron Robertson-Swann Entwined 2021 steel, painted 18 x 54 x 54 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
Ayako Saito Step x Step II steel 200 x 231 x 121 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
Ayako Saito similarly featured in the Sculpture Festival with her work Step x Step II, seen in Wollombi Village. In the nearby Wollombi Community Hall, another work by Saito can be seen on display, Caravan 2021 (painted steel, 16 x 17.5 x 19 cm). Of Step x Step II, Saito says: “This sculpture is like sailing through our lives. It is constructed with elements whose shapes play in concert with each other. They hold and direct space within and the character of the sculpture declares itself.”
Michael Snape The Wave steel 150 x 320 x 70 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
Also in Wollombi Village is Michael Snape‘s The Wave. Snape says of this work: “We imagine ourselves as individuals. We are that. We are also one of many. Each of us is part of the whole picture of humanity, here on the beach, assembled.”
Michael Snape is currently showing several sculptures in his exhibition Here, Australian Galleries Sydney, 15 September – 2 October 2022.
David Horton Early one Evening 2019 210 x 600 (variable) x 400 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
David Horton also features in Wollombi Village with his work Early one Evening, which he explains is, “a triptych of three elements using arches as the galvanising theme.”
Harrie Fasher Voices at Dawn bronze, steel, concrete 250 x 115 x 115 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
Lastly, Harrie Fasher presents Voices at Dawn in the Laguna Hall, for which she says: “Voices at Dawn stands between figuration and abstraction. A bronze female bust is held aloft by an abstract arrangement of steel and concrete line and volume. Derived from the central woman in the mythology surrounding the Morai and our mortality, her role is open for interpretation.”
Sculpture in the Vineyards – Wollombi Valley Sculpture Festival
Wollombi, NSW
10 – 25 September 2022