Sculptor 'overwhelmed' by Venice invitation

Dunedin School of Art senior sculpture lecturer Scott Eady. Photo / Craig Baxter

A Dunedin artist has been invited to show his work at one of the world's most prestigious art exhibitions.

Dunedin School of Art senior sculpture lecturer Scott Eady will travel to Italy in May to install his work "Personal Structures" at the Venice Biennale 2013.

"It was very unexpected and, of course, very exciting news. I am a little overwhelmed," Mr Eady said yesterday.

His installation will feature a series of small bronze sculptures at the Palazzo Bembo, as part of the official collateral events at the biennale.

"It's going to be seven small, painted, bronze sculptures in a courtyard. They look like colourful blobs of chewing gum, which have been spat out in a courtyard, basically. The courtyard is very brown and devoid of colour."

The invitation was extended to Mr Eady's art dealer, RH Gallery, by Venice Biennale director Massimiliano Gioni after his "100 Bikes Project Gwangju" appeared in the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea last year.

It will be only the sixth time the Arts Council of New Zealand has officially participated in the international event, which draws an attendance of more than 300,000 people.

The Venice Biennale - or Biennale di Venezia - was founded in 1895 and is held every two years to provide a snapshot of the global artistic moment.

The official New Zealand entry this year is Dunedin-born sculptor Bill Culbert, who will show his "Front Door Out Back" installation, of furniture speared with fluorescent light tubes, in the New Zealand pavilion in the Istituto Santa Maria della Pieta.

The Venice Biennale 2013 runs from June 1 to November 24.