Terry Stringer
Terry Stringer is a leading New Zealand sculptor. He trained at Elam School of Fine Arts graduating with Honours in 1967 and in the following years received virtually every significant scholarship and award available to New Zealand artists. In the late 1970s he was awarded the prestigious Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council Scholarship three times.
He is a key figure in the history of art in New Zealand, a sculptor with an established reputation. This was acknowledged in 2003 when he was the recipient of the country’s national honour, the ONZM (Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit). His signature works have become synonymous with high profile public sites throughout Aotearoa/New Zealand, including The Risen Christ in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square, his Grand Head in Wellington. He has just completed The World Grasped for Newmarket, Auckland.
In addition to public and private sculpture commissions, Terry Stringer has been involved in various theatrical projects. Downstage Theatre, Wellington commissioned him to design sets and costumes for Cabaret, and the Royal New Zealand Ballet for Images of Desire.
Throughout his career Stringer has exhibited extensively, with solo shows in Auckland, Sydney, Los Angeles and London. He lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand.
Dr Robin Woodward
Department of Art History
University of Auckland
Standing face to face we see the front half of each other. If I step closer, your features enlarge on your face as your ears disappear around the horizon of your head. Your details become rearranged and emphasize your thoughts. If I step around you, will I leave your portrait space and find out your background? Such is sculpture making.
A piece of sculpture can be one subject when seen from a particular direction, but can change to another when the viewing angle is altered. My intention when making my work is to give viewers the reward of a surprise when they investigate the piece. Sculpture can have a series of horizons beyond which its world changes.
Also hidden behind the facade of the sculpture and out of immediate sight is a story of how the piece was made and the life of the artist. What the viewer sees is a final outcome of a number of actions, encircled by an horizon. Ian Hamilton Finlay contends in one of his Six Definitions, that an horizon is an explication. He quoted Coleridge as saying that it is the first line of hills for valley dwellers. Climbing out of the valley to see another point of view, broadens the prospect.
Terry Stringer
Terry Stringer
1946 Born in Cornwall, England
1953 Arrived in New Zealand in
1967 Graduated DFA (Hons) University of Auckland School of Fine Arts
Lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2022 Robin Gibson Gallery
2020 Robin Gibson Gallery
2018 ‘Sea-sound, like violins’ Robin Gibson Gallery
2016 ‘Model with the Sculptor’s Hands’,Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2014 ‘Looking Back and Other Stories, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2013 ‘Face / Space” Pataka Museum, Porirua, New Zealand
2013 ‘Transfigured Heads’ The Pah Homestead / Wallace Arts Trust, Auckland, New Zealand
2013 Â ‘Landscape of the Head’ Tauranga City Art Gallery, New Zealand
2011 ‘Figure & Ground’, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2010 ‘Figure in a Landscape’ Beppu Wiarda Gallery, Portland, USA
2009 ‘A Secret Room in the Head’ Koru Gallery, Hong Kong
2009 ‘Figure in a Landscape’ Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch
2008 ‘Head Room’, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2008 Head Room, Beppu Wiarda, Portland
2006 ‘About Face’ Black Barn Gallery, Hawke’s Bay.
2006 ‘A Life in Sculpture’ Webb’s, Auckland
2006 ‘Our Home is Our Childhood’ Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2006 ‘Our Home is Our Childhood’ Beppu Wiarda Gallery, Portland, USA
2005 ‘The Head is a Theatre of Dreams’ Mark Woolley Gallery, Portland, USA
2004 ‘The Architecture of Memory’ Brooke/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch
2003 ‘Going Home’ Milford Galleries, Dunedin
2003 ‘The Privileged Eye’ Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2002 ‘A Little Theatre Work for the Hands’ Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2002 ‘A Little Theatre Work for the Hands’ Simmons Gallery, London
2002 ‘A Little Theatre Work for the Hand’ Janne Land Gallery, Wellington
2001 ‘Living in my Head’ te tuhi, Auckland
2001 ‘The Palace of the Mind’ Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, and FHE Gallery, Auckland
1999 ‘Behind the Studio Screen’ Janne Land Gallery, Wellington
1998 ‘Personal Museum’ Bishop Suter Gallery, Nelson
1998 ‘Personal Museum’ Hawke’s Bay Exhibition Centre
1996 ‘All We Are One Body’ Anna Bibby Gallery, and subsequent exhibitions, Auckland
1994 Hawke’s Bay Museum, Napier
1989 ‘Figures in a Landscape’ Fisher Gallery, Auckland
1988 Gow, Langsford Gallery, and subsequent exhibitions, Auckland
1986 ‘Aspects of Recent NZ Art, Sculpture 1’Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland
1982 ‘Wrap Around Sculpture’ National Art Gallery, Wellington
1982 ‘Seen’ Denis Cohn Gallery, and subsequent exhibitions, Auckland
1982 Ankrum Galleries, and subsequent exhibitions, Los Angeles, USA
1982 ‘Recent Works’ Rotorua City Gallery, Rotorua
1981 ‘Living Room’ Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North
1981 ‘Living Room’ Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui
1981 ‘Living Room’ Dowse Art Gallery, Lower Hutt
1981 Janne Land Gallery, and subsequent exhibitions, Wellington
1981 Brooke/Gifford Gallery, and subsequent exhibitions, Christchurch
1978 ‘Bronzes & Painted Wood Sculpture’ Waikato Art Museum, Hamilton
1978 Hogarth Galleries, and subsequent exhibitions, Sydney, Australia
1975 Barry Lett Galleries, and subsequent exhibitions, Auckland
Selected Group Exhibitions
since 2000 Annual Sculpture Survey, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2011-2012 Sculpture in the Gardens, Auckland Botanic Gardens
2011 ‘Black Bronzes + Blue Objects’ Thermostat Art Gallery, Palmerston North
2011 ‘Lust’ Brenda May Gallery Sydney
2009 Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi
2009 ‘Small is the new Big’, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2007 ‘Body Works’ Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2006 ‘Shapeshifter’ New Zealand International Arts Festival, Wellington
2005 ‘Sculpture on the Gulf’ Waiheke Island, Auckland
2005 ‘Summer Exhibition’ Royal Academy of Art, London, England
2004 ‘Shapeshifter’ New Zealand International Arts Festival, Wellington
2003 ‘Connectedness’ Hawke’s Bay Museum, Napier
2002 ‘Pacific Rim’ Simmons Gallery, London
2001 ‘Pacific Rim’ McPherson Gallery, Auckland
1999 ‘The Shrine’ Lopdell House Gallery, Auckland and tour
1999 ‘Volume and Form’ Singapore
1999 ‘Face to Face’ Auckland City Art Gallery
1998 ‘(Re)visioning the Real’ Lopdell House Gallery, Auckland and tour
1995 ‘The Persuasion of the Real’ Hawke’s Bay Museum, Napier and tour
1994 ‘Little Jewels’ Arts Marketing Board, Wellington
1991 ‘Inheritance’ Wellington City Art Gallery, Wellington
1990 ‘Medallions ‘90’ Helsinki, 22nd Congress of International Medal Art
1981 Auckland City Art Gallery, ‘Recent Acquisitions, New Zealand Art’
1978 Mildura Sculpture Triennial
Public Commissions & Awards
2013 Sacred Heart College, Auckland, New Zealand
2011 Awarded Nelson City Gateway Sculpture Commission
2010 ‘Mountain Fountain’ The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Parnell, Auckland
2010 ‘Body Language/Spirit of Place’ Palmerston North
2006 ‘The World Grasped’ Newmarket, Auckland
2006 ‘Te Kawau Thinks of Queen Victoria’ Selwyn College, Auckland
2005 ‘The Fates, Peter Craze Memorial’ Ealing, London
2003 ONZM for services to sculpture, New Year Honours list
2003 ‘Faith, Hope, and Love’ St Cuthbert’s College, Auckland
2000 Portrait Sculpture Award, New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Wellington
1999 ‘Risen Christ’ Cathedral Square, Christchurch
1991 ‘Kiri Te Kanawa’ Aotea Centre, Auckland
1988 ‘White Lightning’ Tutanekai Mall, Rotorua
1987 ‘Grand Head’ Victoria Street, Wellington
1977 1981 1982 QE II Arts Council Awards
1979 Aotea Square Water Sculpture, Auckland