Big future for small sculpture

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Artists and dealers say that despite the recession, small-scale sculpture is seeing a surprising upturn in demand from investors. Onehunga-based sculptor Jim Wheeler says sculpture is going "toe-to-toe with painting as an art investment".

Sculpture has been something of a poor cousin to painting in private collecting, says sculpture specialist Robin Woodward, of Auckland University's art history faculty, but this is "totally unjustified" in terms of the country's history of being at the forefront of international developments since the 1960s.

"Savvy collectors have always bought sculpture."

Deborah White, of Whitespace Gallery, made a "definite decision" to showcase small sculpture at this weekend's Auckland Art Fair. "There's a great deal of interest in it," she says.

White says people are now more open to considering sculpture in different ways. "In the past it's been bronze or wood, now there are all kinds of new materials comprising sculpture. That makes it really exciting."

Graham Shoebridge of the Lane Gallery agrees that private collectors' interest has grown in the past year and dealers are encouraging sculptors to produce works with the domestic arena in mind.

An advantage sculpture offers over painting is its flexibility of site, Woodward says. It can go anywhere indoors and, depending on its material, outdoors too.

Sculpture designed to fit in the home tends to carry a relatively accessible price tag - Shoebridge says prices for pieces by emerging artists featuring in an exhibition beginning at his gallery in Auckland this week range from $1000 to $10,000.

Sculptor Lucy Bucknall, winner of the People's Choice award at the high-profile Headland - Sculpture on the Gulf exhibition held on Waiheke, says sales of her work have "taken off in the past several months".

Bucknall sculpts in intrinsically valuable bronze, welding elements together rather than casting the work using a mould, so every piece is a one-off. "Global political" subjects depicted include backpacks with bombs inside and suicide bomber vests. She also employs poignant animal forms - her latest is a gun-toting monkey wearing a gangster-style trenchcoat.

Among prominent business leaders who collect Bucknall's work are New Plymouth architect Terry Boon, Deborah Pead of Pead PR and Cris Roberts of fashion house Pearl.

Wheeler says professionals in their 40s are now buying art instead of spending it on yachts or launches.

He puts a recent surge in demand for his work down to people who still have money "spoiling for a treat" and also shifting their investing vehicles since the demise of finance companies and poor performance of other investments. He is finding it difficult to keep up with buyer demand and is scrambling to meet orders.

Working mostly in labour-intensive bronze, Wheeler uses native trees as metaphors for different aspects of the human condition, exploring the relationship of plant communities and how they mirror the interdependence of people. "I look at nature as a metaphor for a greater order in which humans should learn their place."

Every sculptor is a small business, Wheeler says, undertaking careful, canny planning to cover production costs. The sculptor's small business earns better margins on small and medium works, where the artist doesn't need to hire help or equipment to move the piece.

Making large-scale outdoor works is a "huge entrepreneurial leap" best left for better climates - now is the time artists orient works to their buying market, deferring "outrageous, unsaleable statements".

Forty leading Australasian galleries present their hottest artists at a biennial showcase of contemporary art in the Antipodes today at the Marine Events Centre, 135 Halsey St, Viaduct Harbour, Auckland.