SCULPTURE – 24th February 2003
Orest Keywan – Profile

This month Sculpture by the Sea Art Services looks at the work of sculptor Orest Keywan.  Represented in public and private collections in both Australia and internationally, our readers may be most familiar with his work With a View (pictured right), which was awarded the prestigious Sydney Water Sculpture Prize at Sculpture by the Sea, 1999.

Hailed by art critic Sebastian Smee as “one of the best sculptors we have” Orest has shown work in five of the six Sculpture by the Sea exhibitions.   Orest was born in Marienbad (on the border of Czech Republic and Germany) in 1944 and spent his youth in Canada after migrating there in 1949.  Since his arrival to Australia in 1965, Orest has also been the subject of several successful solo shows.

Orest’s sculpture is set apart by a careful consideration of the interaction between viewer and sculpture, an elegant linearity and a unique engagement of space.  He works very directly using no drawings or models to create his sculptures.  

“Most of my pieces are made over a long period of time, sometimes years.  I always work on several things at once.  I like to live with them as they develop, to let them grow at their own pace.”

Reciprocally, Orest feels that the viewer also needs to allow enough time to connect with his work and to recognise that it takes time to feel, just as it takes time to see.

Within Orest’s sculpture lie several inherent contrasts.  Fine, fretted lines offset wide planes of empty space and natural substances such as wood balance the presence of industrial metals.  John McDonald, art critic, previously commented in the Sydney Morning Herald that “all of Keywan’s works may be seen as a conversation between opposing quantities and qualities.  Line is pitted against mass, steel or aluminium against wood or plastic.”

What is often singled out in accounts of Orest’s sculpture is his ability to suggest in a work a sense of space that extends far beyond the physical dimensions of each piece.  Using whimsical, even insubstantial linearity Orest manages to engage the surrounding emptiness and conjure up a sense of the ephemeral.  In a gently ironic manner he infuses his sculpture with greater substance by activating the environment that surrounds it.  As a result Orest’s body of work has been described as being at once part of this world yet also distinct from it.

Sculpture by the Sea Art Services currently has three small sculptural works by Orest Keywan in our Darlinghurst office.  Each work is an edition of 10, under 20cm in height, cast in stainless steel and priced at $3,300.

If you would like to view these small works or make an appointment to visit Orest’s studio to see a selection of his larger sculptures, please contact Rebecca Townsend on 
0410 457 145 or email rebecca@sculpturebythesea.com

IMAGES: 
From top right:  With a View  205 x 500 x 200cm Steel & Bronze;  Black Sea II  69 x 141 x 39cm  Timber, Aluminium, Stainless Steel, Steel & Synthetic Resin;  Studio Piece  191 x 226 x 118cm  Timber & Steel;  Driving 16 West  191 x 274 x 128cm Steel, Concrete & Synthetic Resin; City Gate 170 x 220 x 250cm  Steel & Timber;  Orest Keywan.