LONDON.- Richard Stone, an established sculptor and painter who practices between London, United Kingdom and Pietrasanta, Italy, is to exhibit two bronze works in the upcoming Royal Society of Sculptors Summer Exhibition.

The exhibition has been independently curated by Jo Baring, Director of the Ingram Collection of Modern British Art. Stone’s bronze works will be shown alongside 23 artists including Clare Burnett, Nick Hornby and Merete Rasmussen. A work by Eduardo Chillida will be on display to coincide with the exhibition, on loan from Hauser & Wirth. Sandy Nairne will officially open the exhibition.

Founded over a century ago, the Royal Society of Sculptors champions sculpture and the artists who create it. The Society royal patronage was awarded in 1911 and many of the last century’s leading sculptors have an association: from Dame Elisabeth Frink to Leon Underwood, Eduardo Chillida to Anthony Caro. Today the Society has a membership of over 600 sculptors, including contemporary sculptors Michael Petry, Alex Chinneck, Amy Stephens and Eva Masterman.

Stone, cited as one of the most talented emerging artists in the UK[i], is a recipient of the Brian Mercer Bronze Scholarship and Residency and was mentored by Helaine Blumenfeld, OBE. Blumenfeld says “Richard's ability to draw deeply from his feelings and thoughts leads to great originality, many of his forms are extremely beautiful, I look forward to seeing some very exciting work from him in the years to come”.

Stone’s sculptural works illustrate the continued relevance of classical materials and forms whilst exploring timeless notions of transformation. The recurrence of abstraction of figurative and natural forms weaves throughout his work, as do evocations of the beauty of and within nature.

in the shade of the magnolias
The magnolia is an enduring and ancient tree, older even than the bee. In this rendering, Stone took buds and branches growing near his Pietrasanta studio, which were cast and then reconfigured into an elegant sculptural form.

Stone recounts, “the magnolia has always been present for me, but seeing it again, by the foundry, it captured the idea of time passing. And yet in that moment there was also a stillness, timelessness, a pathos, hopefulness.”

This process of a found object resulting in something both made up of, but different from, the original form, is a dance well known in Stone’s work. In this way he is both inspired by nature and re-interpreting it through sculpture.

in the shade of the magnolias captures a sense of fragility and the raw beauty of nature. A floor element of petals which have dropped from their branch captures the impermanence of nature whilst adding a figurative element to the work.

Stone worked with Fonderia Mariani in Pietrasanta, a studio renowned for the quality. “In every detail, the sculpture is a technical achievement from the balancing of weight to the fine detail of each branch and petal form. The piece was cast in twelve parts across seven individual studios over a period of four months”.

when a land becomes a sea
when a land becomes a sea was influenced by Stone’s visits to coastlines in England and Italy. The abstracted landscape evokes something of the meeting of two parts. A near collision, before a falling into the sea. The resultant rocky crags are reminiscent of Caspar David Friedrich's romantic heights turned solid, weighty and hard.

Stone reflects, “Someone recently said, that my sculptures look like they’re made by the weather, this work reflects that, yet despite a storm, it holds itself. This work takes on the shape of a cathedral, but I think my faith is really in nature.”

In contrast to Stone’s more delicate sculptures, the work has an awkward physicality to it. The landscape fought its way into being, from layers of wax built up precariously and reinforced, only to collapse again before being rebuilt. The resulting form has been born of a visceral engagement between sculptor and material, man and representation of nature. The work was created as a single form over a period of two months and cast and finished in one piece. At over 100 kilos, it is Stone’s largest and heaviest bronze sculpture.