Lot 5. GREG JOHNS (b. 1953)

Excavator 1998

Austen Steel & Burnt Jarrah
Height 118cm Width 85cm
Signed to Base, Dated 2000
Edition 9
Prov: BMG Art Gallery. Exhibited BMG Art Gallery December 2001 exhibition No. 13
Private Collection Adelaide

Frame size: n/a

Condition: This piece is in excellent condition, no visible damage or concerns. No dents, cracks or visible repairs. In lovely original condition without concerns.

$6,000-8,000

One of Australia’s leading contemporary sculptors, Greg Johns has established an international reputation over a career spanning five decades. Born in Adelaide in 1953, Johns studied at the South Australian School of Art before embarking on a career that has included major public commissions and exhibitions throughout Australia, Europe, Asia and the United States. His distinctive sculptures, frequently constructed from Corten steel, explore the relationship between natural forms, the Australian landscape and abstraction.

The Excavator series emerged during the late 1990s, with Excavator I exhibited at Greenaway Gallery, Adelaide, in 1998. Inspired by the forms and movements of wading birds, these sculptures reduce their natural subjects to elegant arrangements of elongated geometric elements. The series subsequently developed into a significant public commission in 2002, when Johns was commissioned to create five Excavator sculptures for the Waterways residential development in Melbourne. Installed in 2008, these monumental bird-like forms remain situated within the surrounding wetland environment.

Johns’ achievements include winning the sculpture category of the Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize in both 2004 and 2005, and receiving the prestigious McClelland Sculpture Prize in 2012. In 2001, he initiated the Palmer Sculpture Landscape project in South Australia’s Murraylands, combining large-scale sculpture with environmental restoration. His work is represented in numerous important public collections, including the Art Gallery of South Australia.