|
|
|
The sculptures in
this exhibition play with a mixture of heavy, hand wrought, steel and
an evocative psychological content, juxtaposing the plasticity,
fluidity and versatility of the contemporary medium with notions of its
origins in iron age myth and the ponderous gravity of archaic
architecture.
In most of the sculptures the movement is circular. Vectors and forms
lead the viewers eye continually back into and around the work
maintaining verve.
The paper constructions in this exhibition were done in New York,
London and Florence in 2005. They are a form of drawing for sculpture,
and also intended as works in themselves. Mood and atmosphere, colour
and layering, views of architecture, sky, ground and figure in some
measure influenced them.
Paul Selwood first
studied sculpture at the National Art School, Sydney in 1964. At
the end of 1965 he went to Greece to carve marble in the Lit Nitus
Quarries on the island of Paros, famed for its pure white marble since
classical times. The next six years were spent in London
where he was technical
assistant in the sculpture department Royal College of Art till 1968
and was represented by the Kasmin Gallery. Here he found himself at the
centre of the contemporary art world and met many of the avant-garde
painters and sculptors of the time.
He was invited to teach sculpture at the Bath Academy of Art in 1969 to
1970. He spent ten months in India in 1971 studying classical
forms in sculpture and architecture.
Since his return to Australia, Selwood has given over twenty solo
exhibitions of sculpture. He has taught at the National Art
School, Cit Art Institute, (now COFA), Uni of Southern Queensland, and
Uni of Newcastle. He was commissioned by the Victorian Bar for a
sculpture in Owen Dixon Chambers, Melbourne in 2002 He was short
listed for the National Sculpture Prize in 2005. He lives and
works in Wollombi in the Hunter Valley NSW
|
|
|
|
