Perth Voice Interactive

An Aussie “holiday” turned into a new life and a highly successful career as a sculptor for UK-born Stephen Glassborow.

The artist’s brother had “persuaded” him to come to Australia to help build a boat in the ‘80s.

Sunshine, family and an idyllic lifestyle saw a “couple of years” turn into more than a quarter of a century.

“We’ve been here 30 years now,” Glassborow told the Voice.

Born in London, he studied fine art at Brighton University where he was drawn to the hefty work of sculpting rather than wielding a paint brush.

Glassborow modestly plays down a career that spans the globe, with pieces gracing public buildings in Australia, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul, for clients including Hilton, Disney Corporation, Qantas and Sheraton.

“I don’t know what I have done, but I have survived,” he says of the notoriously fickle world of art.

In his early years Glassborow focussed on large-scale commissioned pieces, but 15 years ago began to include independent, smaller, pieces for the “home collector”.

“I enjoy working on that scale, it’s quite intimate,” he says.

His latest exhibition is an “interplay between figuration and abstraction”. “Using realism that hints at the surreal.”

Humorous pieces include “mumbo jumbo” a cute elephant seemingly defying gravity as it balances daintily on its trunk, while others are a modern take on the world of art deco.

Many trick the eye, appearing impossibly held together, including Space Girl, an electric-blue woman who has viewers scratching their head that she remains upright.

Bronze is Glassborow’s preferred medium but he was keen to add colour to the usual dull browns and “monotone” of the material.

With most foundries reluctant to step outside their traditional role, he set himself the task of colour patination, applied after casting.

The result is works in stunning blues, oranges, pinks and yellows mixed with the traditional “gold” of bronze.

“Colour adds an additional level of intrigue and complexity,” Glassborow says.

The exhibition is on till October 29 at Linton and Kay Gallery, St Georges Tce, Perth.

by JENNY D’ANGER