Rogue Sculptors Exhibition 2024, The Corner Store Gallery.
Rogue Sculptors Group Exhibition
Exhibiting Artists: Chris Cowell, Jaq Davies, Alison Dent, Aileen Francis, Jude Keogh, Deborah Kwa, Trish Lovecek, Kerry Mahony, Diane O’Neile, Natalie Reid, Karin Smith, Ralph Tikerpae, Jane Tyack.
Rogue Sculptors are a collective group of diverse artists located in the Central West of NSW involved in the production of 2 and 3-dimensional artworks. The group currently comprising of around twenty members, produce a wide and dynamic range of art forms producing small to large works in varied media including ceramics, fibre, stone, plastic, wood, glass and metal. The aim of the group is to foster and promote the practice of sculpture within the region principally by exhibition.
The Rogue Sculptors group was formed in 2007 and has held exhibitions in both regional and commercial galleries. As a celebrated group, we hold exhibitions in Orange annually, which is met with much enthusiasm from art lovers both locally and also those visiting. All the members are actively practicing, most having trained in the visual arts through both TAFE and University.
The eclectic nature of all our artists works, are a rich source of inspiration to the viewer, leading you on a refreshing journey of unexpected directions.
Chris Cowell
Chris works predominantly with lightweight materials, most recently focussing on giving new life to discarded waste materials from the refrigeration industry, mostly from the now closed Electrolux Refrigeration plant, Orange.
Thermoplastics, aluminium, copper & stainless-steel wire appeal for their particular translucent and reflective qualities. From these, Chris creates small polished, delicately worked components reflecting the intimate nature of the handmade form and at the same time, acknowledging the precision of the refrigeration industry. Chris references Icy landscapes making comment on geographical structure and processes.
Jaq Davies
Jaq Davies is multidisciplinary artist living and working in the Central West of NSW.
Much of Jaq's work is autobiographical and combines elements of sculpture, painting, drawing and found objects to create works with their own distinct visual language....... works which are suspended in a place between reality and the abstract.
Alison Dent
Alison’s work is mainly sculpture using scrap metal influenced by family, friends, community and artists.
Being from a farming background, there was always a lot of scrap metal around for use and inspiration.
Alison enjoys Community projects, such as “Pave The Way” in Gulargambone with the wonderful Bullock wagon sculpture, “Ghosts of Bullocks Past”, and the biennial street art event and creating the large, award winning “Galloping Horse” Sculptures in Coonamble.
Aileen Francis
Aileen's first career was agricultural plant pathology, specializing in crop loss in cotton due to fungal disease. Moving to Orange in 1996 presented the opportunity for a second career in Fine Arts at TAFE Orange. She majored in sculpture and, using interdisciplinary approaches, combined scientific and artistic methods and techniques for the expressive interpretation and presentation of ideas.
Jude Keogh
After gaining a certificate in art foundation in 1991, Jude went on to do an associate diploma in art (ceramics) graduating in 1995 at Orange TAFE after 4 years of study, with her major work being wood firing using salt glaze. She chose wood firing because of the beautiful colours created from the flames and the glazing qualities of the wood ash as it floats through the kiln and rests on the pots.
She now works with her gas kiln using commercially bought glaze materials and clay. She mixes her own glazes and also uses local glaze materials to decorate some of her work.
Jude uses ash from various plants and trees and experiments with ground up rocks, stones and also bones.
Deborah Kwa
Deborah Kwa is a visual artist working on Wiradjuri country near Orange NSW. She is currently Artist in Residence at Tafe in Orange.
Her work usually addresses environmental concerns as well as the human experience. Deborah is compelled by the human condition to create organically formed sculptures from reclaimed copper wire. She enjoys creating spiralling and spherical forms, drawing analogies to our experiences.
The process of manipulating the copper wire is meditative and speculative, since the form develops as the sculpture evolves. The creative process is a journey of discovery, and the result remains unresolved until completion.
Trish Lovecek
Trish Lovecek creates sculpture and mixed media as Expressive Art with references to memory and the everyday. Feelings of nostalgia, times past and the environment dominate a narrative approach to themes. Her art practice encompasses sculptural assemblages of wire and papier-mache to form her sculptures, with found objects sourced from the ordinary. The found objects may conjure thoughts and feelings in the viewer, and these assembled sculptures are often painted with acrylics which makes them reborn art forms.
Kerry Mahony
Kerry’s three figurative bronzes in this exhibition are unique; no copies have been made. Kerry aims to express emotion through body language. Anguish I and II were inspired by Martha Graham’s dance Letter for the World 1941. Graham’s work has been described as intense and forceful expressions of primal emotions.
Kerry’s third bronze, The Scream was inspired by Pina Bausch’s choreography for Vollmond. Bausch describes herself as a German expressionist and encourages her dancers to scream, cry, and laugh on stage. The making of the sculptures was a cathartic process for Kerry.
Dianne O’Neile
Dianne O’Neile was originally a painter but she has recently expanded her creative horizons. She has channelled her skills with fabrics and fibres into the realm of small metal sculpture. These sculptures celebrate the small things in life. She frequently portrays children, animals and the occasional parent figure participating in play. The sculptures are full of memories of games and gardens. The focus is inward exploring her recollections of childhood and special moments.
Natalie Reid
Natalie Reid is an experienced artist that works in multi media and loves to use found and discarded objects to tell a story.
Natalie’s pieces included in this exhibition are a celebration of recycling, from old paint swatches to broken Christmas ornaments. Shown in the usage of a piece of packaging palet being hand carved to portray the artist in “The Artists’ Muse”.
Natalie finds inspiration in her own life, “Swing Time” is from a memory of keeping birds in cages as a child and taking the time to look after them as pets, now she wishes for the freedom from the cage.
Using her skills with paint and collage, Natalie often uses birds to embellish her work as with the Ibis in “Now Close Your Eyes and Revitalise’
Karin Smith
Karin creates sculptures in bronze referencing the use of this material for statuary over the millenia. Bronze has substance and permanence. Her works are small and impressionistic and enhance personal spaces such as a desk, windowsill or bedside.
Ralph Tikerpae
After many years of separating his sculpture and painting practices, he has more recently combined the two into combined sculpted and painted forms.
These figurines are carved from single pieces of fully seasoned wood which have been sustainably sourced and saved from potential landfill. The artworks, in general are a celebration of summer and optimism, with a colour palette that echoes optimism and youth.
He draws tremendous inspiration from the artwork of the German Expressionists and believes in the demonstration of emotion through colour and brushwork.
He has a fascination for reinvestigating his younger halcyon days, attempting to capture this essence through the portrayal of semi-naive painted figurines, capturing swimmers, iconic assemblages and innocent youths at play.
Jane Tyack
Taking disparate items, and rebuilding them in unexpected ways, Janes created artworks are refreshing and individual and explore the passions of her imagination. Jane likes to render her work, (sometimes whimsical), in her distinct memories of childhood fascination.
Predominately working as a sculptor, Jane is also adept in her approach to painting and collage.
Achieving a diploma in Fine Arts, Jane has been successful in exhibiting on a regular basis, both in solo and combined exhibitions.