New Work
“Green River Mystic responds to both one of my earliest influences in the West Sepik town of Vanimo and the mysteries of waterways and estuaries here in Australia, in this case, the Bellinger River. The ancient carved object I handled in PNG resonated with a primal elegance and its schooled journeys. A custodian totem burnished by hands and time itself. I understand it better now as a regal symbol of an ancient ecological animism. One we are perhaps challenged to reconcile with the mind of the machine. My attempts to capture from memory the feeling of the canoe prow piece I handled there in the late 1970’s have lingered across many drawing books until, only recently once resolved, I was compelled to give it form.”
Michael Mandelc, 2024
Artist statement
“My practice is built on a pattern of image making that aims at placing us within a deepening perspective in relation to the natural world. To do so I seek out the unseen things hidden between the layers of repetition and duplication in nature. I look to embed my work with the rhythm or pulse that connects us to everything else. This state of mind is key to a language which in articulation looks to break nature open and clothe it in it’s environment.
My way is to pursue a robust delicacy that invites temporal qualities to occupy the work. In keeping with this approach, the lost wax metal casting process has formed a practical mainstay as it affords me a reliable shorthand with which to record the poetry of form in space.
To make sculpture is to hover over risk, perceive and enter worlds of scaleless plasticity.”
Michael Mandelc
about the artist
Michael Mandelc is an internationally-collected artist whose career spans over two decades. He initially learnt technique and his approach to sculpture from two of Henry Moore’s assistants, Alan Ingham and Stephen Walker O.A. His language was developed within the atelier and near the furnace, though is driven by the natural world.
Phantom Falls aluminium foam 320cm x 410cm x 630cm 2013 Permanent Collection of Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Katoomba, NSW
BIOGRAPHY
EXHIBITIONS
2012 Lost Bear Gallery, Blue Mountains, NSW – ‘Poetry of Form in Nature’
2012 Lost Bear Gallery, Blue Mountains, NSW – ‘Inspired by Nature’
2011 Katoomba Fine Art Gallery, Blue Mountains, NSW – ‘Bird Flower’
2007 Katoomba Fine Art Gallery, Blue Mountains, NSW – ‘Bird Garden’
2005 Katoomba Fine Art Gallery, Blue Mountains, NSW – ‘Bird Line’
2004 Vanessa Wood Fine Art, Mosman, Sydney, NSW – Selected Works
2003 ‘Big Five’ Dubai International Design Fair, Dubai, UAE – Selected Works
2002 DesignEx, Melbourne, VIC – Selected Works
1997 Vanessa Wood Fine Art, Mosman, Sydney, NSW – Selected Works
1992 Barry Stern, Woollahra, Sydney, NSW – Selected Works
1991 Bridge Street Gallery, Woollahra, Sydney, NSW – Selected Works
1989 Eddie Glastra, Paddington, Sydney, NSW – Selected Works
COMMISSIONS
2013 ‘Phantom Falls’ Permanent Collection of Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Katoomba, NSW
2011 ‘Drover’s Wife Award’ Henry Lawson Festival of the Arts (16th consecutive year), NSW
2004 ‘Circe’ MHM Australasia, Sydney, NSW
2003 ‘Kinetic Sculpture’ Bondi Junction Mall, Waverly council, Sydney, NSW
2000 ‘Edwin Flack’ Award Sydney Olympics, NSW
2000 ‘Twin Crosses’ St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, NSW
1999 ‘Fusion’ BOC Corporate Headquarters, Sydney, NSW
1997 ‘The Dancer’ Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, NSW
1996 ‘Flight Form I’ Qantas First Class Lounge, Sydney, NSW
1996 ‘City of the Arts Award’ Arts Ministry, Sydney, NSW
1995 ‘Olle Award’ Royal Australian Chemical Institute, NSW
1995 ‘Waiting for Spring’ Lillianfels Hotel, Blue Mountains, NSW
1990 ‘Menage et Tois’ Morgan’s Hotel, Sydney, NSW
