- Source: Anne Ross (Australian sculptor)
Anne Ross (born 1959) is an Australian sculptor, whose large fanciful bronze statues figure prominently in various public places. Based in Bayside, Melbourne, she is recognised for her whimsical and humorous artworks, created over four decades, that blend elements of the human and non-human.
Career
In childhood Ross suffered osteomyelitis entailing immobilisation of her leg and hospitalisation and, with working parents, spent much time alone, in which she drew intensively. At age twenty and during 1979–82 she undertook a Diploma of Art & Design in Fine Art (Drawing), at Prahran College of Advanced Education. Until 1988 she freelanced as an illustrator of children’s books for publishers Oxford University Press, Longman and Cheshire and Thomas Nelson Australia, experience which inspired and coloured her sculptural imagery. Alongside that work Ross also pursued her artistic interests, renting space at Caravan, a group studio in Richmond, where she met sculptors. Determining to take up the medium, at twenty-five she enrolled as a mature-age student at the same Prahran College, then part of Victoria College, and studied for a BFA in sculpture 1988-91.
Ross was employed as a foundry technician while at Prahran College, work which continued after her graduation and the merger of the College into the Victorian College of the Arts in 1993. She moved her studio to Gasworks Art Park in Albert Park where she started to receive commissions in 1991, one of which, Not Without Chomley remains in its grounds. Ross's training in foundry techniques enables her to produce work more quickly than can those sculptors who rely on others for the industrial processes required in production of large-scale sculpture.
Ross received a grant from the Australia Council in 1992 and samples of her work were included in the Moet & Chandon touring exhibition in 1994. She received ongoing support through exhibitions organised by gallerist Brenda May's directorships of Access Contemporary Art Gallery and May's eponymous gallery 1994–2008.
Ross was employed from 1994 at Perrin Sculpture Foundry in Cheltenham and subsequently relocated her own studio to the suburb. During this period her interest in anthropomorphism and a childlike conversation of animals with humans became more confident, as is evident in developments between Degas Dogs (1997) and Point of Origin (2000). Dogs, their toys, and children's playthings provide much of the subject matter.
In 2023 Bayside Gallery mounted a survey of Ross's work, curated by Joanna Bosse and with catalogue essays by the curator and Andrew Stephens that highlight Ross's preoccupation with 'pathos and humour within the themes of companionship, belonging and self-containment through the medium of bronze.'
Works
Ross's public works are distributed nationally and internationally, and include Midnight (2015), at the University of Wollongong, Summertime (2017) in the City of Bayside, Taken Not Given (2018) in Melbourne, and the multi-piece Lost and Found (2019) along the Pier Promenade of Frankston City. Ross contributed a much smaller bronze bunyip to the American Natural History Museum, New York City. The artwork Boing II (1995), has been acquired by Artbank as part of the Australian Government Office for the Arts contemporary Australian art collection. In 2016, the "playful" sculpture M is for Market, was commissioned by the Dandenong Market, Creative Victoria and the City of Greater Dandenong to commemorate the Market's 150th birthday.
Reception
Ross's $80,000 The Resting Place (1999) for the City of Kingston which, as reported in The Australian Jewish News, was her then largest work and based on her research into the indigenous name for the district mooorooboon, a factor acknowledged by the mayor as a reason 'the artist was chosen for her skill and the enormous enthusiasm she brought to the project. She references aspects of local contemporary and historical cultural life within the piece in subtle and humorous ways.'
Known for the anthropomorphic characterisations of her subjects, Ross's submission in the McClelland Contemporary Sculpture Survey of 2006 attracted critic Ashley Crawford's comment that it 'looks cute from afar, but upon approach the mongrels turn on the viewer with deep growls; one almost expects them to start frothing at the mouth.'
Dance of the Platypus (2001) in the City of Wyndham, On the Road Again (2011) in Lyons, ACT, followed, and The Other Side of Midnight (2012) in Canberra, was funded by the Australian Capital Territory government's Percent for Art scheme, which commenced in 1978 to commit 1 percent of new capital works annually to public art projects. The program was subject to controversy during the 2008 election and discontinued in 2009, so The Other Side of Midnight with three other sculptors' works were kept in storage until, as announced in The Age and in other media Arts Minister Joy Burch 'unveiled the whimsical $187,000 work 'The Other Side of Midnight' by Melbourne artist Anne Ross in City Walk on December 4.'
Ross was also commissioned to create A is for Alexander B is for Bunyip C is for Canberra (2011), a reference to the 1972 children's book The Monster that Ate Canberra by Michael Salmon, the inspiration for the ABC-TV children's series Alexander Bunyip's Billabong. The statue was installed adjacent the public library, Gungahlin, Australian Capital Territory and launched by Jon Stanhope MLA on 13 April 2011. Within three years maintenance costing over $5,000 was committed.
In 2023, the three-part sculpture She gave me a daisy was featured at Billilla Mansion Gardens as an extension of her major solo retrospective at Brighton's Bayside Gallery. In the catalogue of that show, curator Joanna Bosse remarks on Ross's working of patinated cast bronze for her sculptures, emphasising that it is a 'challenging and technically demanding medium' and that in their production she works 'hands-on at every stage' to make complex works:Ross's extraordinary ability to translate poetic, dreamlike ideas and imagery into this ancient, weighty medium with a deft lightness of touch sets her apart as a true innovator. This seeming incongruity is just one of many that lies at the heart of her intriguing works.She gave me a daisy appeared later in the Mars Gallery 2023 Christmas Exhibition catalogue.
Exhibitions
= Solo
=2023, 8 July–27 August: Whichaway, Bayside Gallery, cnr. Wilson and Carpenter Sts. Brighton
2008, 12 Aug–6 Sept: Brenda May Gallery, 2 Danks St., Waterloo, Sydney
2006 Brian Moore Gallery, 294 Glenmore Rd., Paddington, New South Wales
2004 Brian Moore Gallery, 294 Glenmore Rd., Paddington, New South Wales
2002 Brian Moore Gallery, 294 Glenmore Rd., Paddington, New South Wales
2001 Beaver Galleries, Anne Ross: Sculpture, 81 Denison St, Deakin, ACT
2001 Beaver Galleries, Cha, Cha, Cha, 81 Denison St, Deakin, ACT
1999 Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Redfern, Sydney
1997 Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Redfern, Sydney
1995 Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Redfern, Sydney
1994 Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Redfern, Sydney
= Group
=2014: 17 June–12 July: Collectors: An excerpt from the private collection of Jeff Hinch, Brenda May Gallery, 2 Danks St., Waterloo, Sydney
2012: 14 July–26 August: 2012 Paul Guest Drawing Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, Victoria
2010 Bic Show, White Gallery, Milan, Italy
2010, Theresienstadt – Drawn from the Inside, Jewish Museum of Australia
2008 Who Let the Dogs Out. The dog in contemporary Australian art. Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery NSW, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, NSW
2008 Monobrow Show, Hell Gallery, Richmond
2008 Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2007 McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Victoria
2007 New Under the Sun, Jewish Museum of Australia, and touring.
2007 Prometheus Visual Arts Award, Queensland
2006 Melbourne International Arts Festival, Unsettled Boundaries, The Idea of the Animal, RMIT Gallery, Storey Hall, Melbourne
2006 Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2005 McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Victoria
2005 Art and Humour, Brenda May Gallery, Sydney
2005 Prometheus Visual Arts Award, Queensland
2004 Inaugural Exhibition, Heiser Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland
2003 McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Victoria
2003 Markers of Place, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery
2002, 2 November–8 December: The Year In Art, S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
2002 The Animal State, Manning Regional Art Gallery, NSW
2002 The Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, NSW
2002, 1 June–21 July: Salon des Refuses, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
2002 Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2001 Menagerie @ Treasury, Gold Museum, Melbourne
2001 Sculpture Now, Brian Moore Gallery, Sydney
2001 Peer Pressure, Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Sydney
2000 Toowoomba Biennial Art Award, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery
2000 Melbourne Art Fair 2000, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2000 Conrad Jupiters 2000 Art Prize, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland
1999 The 30th Alice Prize, The Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
1999 We Are Australian, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne
1999 A4 Art, West Space Inc, Footscray
1999 Nillumbik Art Award, Eltham Community Centre, Victoria
1998 Sixth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melb.
1998 Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland
1998 Salon des Refuses, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
1997 Salon des Refuses, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
1997 Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland
1997 Nillumbik Art Award, Eltham Community Centre, Victoria
1996 Group Show, curated by Anne Loxley, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Sydney
1996 Mixed Platter, Access Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria
1996 Fifth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melb.
1995 3rd Annual Contemporary Art Auction, Art Gallery of New South Wales
1994 Moet & Chandon Touring Exhibtion: Art Gallery of Western Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria
1993 Gasworks Outdoor Sculpture Show, Southgate, Melbourne
1993 Small Works – Two, Roar 2 Studios, Fitzroy
1993 Figurative Sculptors, Victorian College of the Arts Gallery, Melbourne
1992 Second Victorian Contemporary Sculpture Show, Kyneton, Victoria
1992 Gasworks Outdoor Sculpture Show, Gasworks, Albert Park
1991 Gasworks Outdoor Sculpture Show, Gasworks, Albert Park
Collections
City of Melbourne
University of Wollongong
Artbank, Sydney
Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery
Maitland Regional Gallery
Jewish Museum of Australia
Arts ACT, Canberra
Frankston City Council
City of Kingston
City of Port Phillip
Wyndham City Council
Westfield, Southland Shopping Centre, Victoria
Swire Properties Limited, Hong Kong
Private and corporate collections in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and U.S.A.
Gallery
References
External links
Official website