Sculpture at the Beach New works by John Seed, Adam Rish and John Gardner



An event to coincide with Sculpture by the Sea 2010



Opening: 3pm Saturday 30th of October 2010



To coincide with Sculpture By The Sea, this exhibition showcases three artists who share a studio space in Maroubra. They have diverse backgrounds; environmentalism, medicine and metal working. They use diverse materials; aluminium, wood, bronze, glass an steel. They have diverse influences; abstraction and formalism to funk and surrealism. They do, however, have a common passion for sculpture, to be exhibited together for the first time at Coo-ee Art Gallery.



John Seed

John Seed's welded steel sculptures were exhibited at the Bonython and Holdsworth Galleries in the '60's and '70's as well as at the Centerprise Gallery in London. At the time he worked under the name of John Kampfner.

For the next 35 years he sculpted reality rather than steel. He created the Rainforest Information Centre; protected rainforests around the world (www.rainforestinfo.org.au); make films and music CDs (www.rainforestin- fo.org.au/video.htm) and supported the conservation of nature and Indigenous survival. John has now returned to his first love and is once again sculpting in Sydney. John works with steel skeletons that emerge from metal stamping machines, detritus of industrial civilization which he transforms into a spiritual cornucopia of organic shapes. He follows Blake in asking “And was Jerusalem builded here/Amongst these dark satanic mills?”



Adam Rish

Adam Rish has exhibited since 1975 and is represented in many major Australian collections. His interest is in cross-cultural collaboration as “world art” (like “world music) and has worked with Indigenous artists in Australia, Indonesia, Tonga, Turkey and the USA, making ceramics, paintings, prints, sculpture and textiles.

Since 2007 he has been making wooden sculptures with I Wayan Sumantra in Ubud, Bali. Rish designs scale drawings which Wayan carves in local, abesea wood for Rish to finish in his Maroubra studio. The sculptures are Rish’s absurdist take upon traditional carving from Southeast Asia. They are made as modular pieces so they slot together with pins for ease of transport and storage. He is showing courtesy of Australian Galleries.

John Gardner

John Gardner relocated to Australia from the U.S. in the 1970’s and lectured in sculpture at the Prahran College of Advanced Education, Melbourne, where he taught sculpture and bronze casting. After moving to Sydney, John worked at the National Art School, formerly known as East Sydney Technical College where he operated a bronze casting foundry and taught sculpture. John is intent on exploring the relationship between mind and matter, and the interpretation of cultural iconography. The strength of Gardner’s work is conveyed by his choice of materials – bronze, stainless steel, granite, aluminium and glass. John continues to be an exhibiting artist and his sculptures are represented in both corporate and private collections in Australia, the United States and Europe.