Just like the Easter Bunny, your birthday and Christmas we are back sooner than you expected and the first sculptures are already being installed in preparation for our opening next week on 3 November.

This year we have more than 20 sculptures by artists who have not exhibited with us before at Bondi. Most of these artists are emerging sculptors and it is one of the aims of the exhibition to exhibit artists at all stages of their careers alongside some of the most important sculptors in the world.



Catalogue Image: Chava Kuchar, the hazard, Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2011.

First time emerging artists to look out for this year include: Chava Kuchar with her quirky approach to golf; Simon McGrath (whose work we are not going to show you as we want it to be a surprise); and National Art School honours student and abstract steel sculptor James McCallum who is one of this year’s Clitheroe Mentor program recipients; while everyone’s favourite blacksmith Tomas Misura is back after exhibiting ‘Splash’ last year.



Tomas Misura, splash, Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2010. Photo Matthew Stanton.


As we celebrate 15 years, thank you and welcome to each of the artists in this year’s show who also joined us for our first (and just one day) exhibition in 1997: Geoff Harvey, Stephen King, Michael Le Grand, James Rogers, Margarita Sampson, Ian Swift and Vince Vozzo. It’s been a great, long and at times very tough journey, so thank you for being with us at the very start and again this year, as well as many in between.



Margarita Sampson, urchins, Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 1997. Photo Clyde Yee.

The first international and interstate artists have arrived in Sydney. While some are having a nice break before the hard work like George Mayerhanser from Germany, others like first time exhibitor Peter Lundberg from the USA are hard at work with his preparations taking a week on site in Marks Park on the south Bondi headland. Peter is casting his work by pouring cement into a hole dug into the ground. Once set the cast work is removed and installed upright. Meanwhile one kilometre south at Tamarama beach … Marcus Tatton from Tasmania is a couple of days into a week long installation of a major work that he previously installed in Aarhus, Denmark. Ever since we saw the concept it seemed made for Tamarama. It is a beautiful haunting work to see but a lot of hard work to install.

To each of the 109 artists welcome and thank you.



Catalogue Image: Peter Lundberg, laindjung, Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2011.