Nationality New Zealand Website llewsummers.co.nz | Name Llew Summers Role Artist | |
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Llew Summers at home
Llew Summers (born 1947) is a sculptor based in Christchurch, New Zealand known for his distinctive sculptures of the human form.
He began producing public sculptures after finishing a four-year farming apprenticeship in the early 1970, and gave his first exhibition in 1971. Since then has held many one-man shows as well as exhibiting alongside other artists including: Tony Fomison, Fatu Feu’u, Michael Smither, Tom Mutch, Peter Carson, Roger Hickin, Bing Dawe and Graham Bennett.
He believes it is the role of the artist to challenge: “if it’s not challenging, then, in some way, it’s not new”. His interest has been primarily in figurative works, and is celebratory of the human form, affirming the beauty of the human body. However, following a formative and revelatory overseas trip his use of religious symbolism has developed. It was first manifest through a series of icons and shrines comprising crosses, hearts and lights. More recently it has led to a fertile preoccupation with winged forms; most often, but not exclusively, attached to bodies. These angels are an obvious melding of the human and the divine – bringing an explicitly spiritual element to his work and highlighting the important role of morality, and the spiritual dimension of human existence.
“What’s important to me is to get a balance between the physical and the spiritual in life. We’re given a soul and we’re given a body. Sculpture is a nice balance because works can be made which are deep and meaningful, but they require your physical body to produce them. Works must have soul, rather than being merely clever or smart.”
He has regularly participated in outdoor sculpture shows such as those held at the Waitakaruru Arboretum and Sculpture Park, the Auckland Botanic Gardens, NZ Sculpture Onshore, Tai Tapu Sculpture Gardens, the NewDowse Gallery, Governors Bay and Sculpture in Central Otago (Wanaka), as his larger works are ideal for garden and other outdoor settings. His large sculptures can be seen in public spaces in New Zealand, from Kaitaia to Wanaka and many localities in between. His work is held in private collections both within New Zealand and internationally.
His sculpture of 14 Stations of the Cross installed at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament created a controversy due to the depiction of a naked figure of Jesus at his crucifixion.