Blake Ward
In the words of Art Critic Jacqueline Ceresoli[1][2] "Bodies in metamorphosis, balanced between apocalypse and the Postmodern, steeped in a lost Classical age, echoed through an ever-evolving Renaissance, in vibrant tension or torsion as they head toward some future utopia."
Ward has been exhibited in France, Monaco, Italy, Germany, England, Singapore, India, Hong Kong, the United States and Canada.
Ward attended the University of Alberta, where he studied abstract welded steel sculpture under Peter Hide, a graduate from St. Martins School of Art, London, and a student of the English sculptor Anthony Alfred Caro.
After receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, with honours in 1979, Ward worked for Wardair Canada Ltd., in the US, Mexico, England, France, Spain, Italy and briefly in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
While living in Paris, (1985 - 1989), Ward had the opportunity to delve into 18th and 19th century sculpture, earnestly studying works by Auguste Rodin, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Jean-Antoine Houdon, Aimé-Jules Dalou and Aristide Maillol.
As a pupil of American sculptor, Cyril Heck,[6] Ward learned a classical method of sculpting the figure that was said to have been developed by the ancient Greeks.
Ward used the figure as a language to speak of a political and moral perspective, eventually focusing on the struggle for Human Rights in a series entitled ReThink Collection.
Early in the development of the Spirit Collection, his collaboration with conceptual artist, Beatrice (Boky) Hackel, later to become Ward's wife, materially influenced this body of work.
"…a restorer, painter, musician, photographer, performance and conceptual artist, who trained in Florence where she breathed, lived and absorbed the ‘grammar’ of the Renaissance.
"[19] Departing further from the traditional techniques of sculpting, Ward broadened his creative process by employing technology centred on the use of computer assisted design (CAD) software and 3D printing.
That incident ran counter to Ward's support for Women's rights and although they were exhibiting the co-authored sculpture as a couple, acceptance was slow to be granted.
[22] Hackel's sculpture, Losing Myself In You (Bronze with Gold Leaf) is based on her self-portrait embodying the self-effacing position of women in our society; a strong reflection of her personal feelings working in the shadow of Ward.
[24] Within this series Ward subverts the traditions of figurative sculpture to create an interpretation illustrating both the fragile character of beauty and man's enduring ability to survive.
The ReThink Collection explores urgent concerns; it is art filled with self-reflective interrogation, seeking to examine the context of each artwork within a specific social, cultural and political circumstance.
These works speak of the fragile character of truth, comprising diverse perspectives and intimating contemplative messages revolving around the consolations of hope, justice and human rights.
These provocative sculptural works challenge subjects of diverse socio-political convictions that subvert human rights and threaten modern notions of veracity, freedom and the law as an agent of social change.
Within the creative process new techniques of building and editing the figures evolved, engineered to pay homage not only to negative space itself, but give importance to the uniqueness of each individual inner core structure.
"[36] In Ward's most recent series of works, Andromeda Collection (2017 - present) the figure has evolved to another level of creative requirements through the use of computer aided design (CAD) software and 3D printing.
This series combines the use of digital technology with traditional sculpting, in order to enhance the design of the "open partial figure" originally created in the Spirit Collection.
Finally, the digital files are printed employing a SLS 3D printer in a wax polymer and a lost-wax bronze cast is made in the traditional manner.
The finished sculpture takes advantage of the unique capability of sculpting at a microscopic level and the freedom of being able to create a structure without having to support it during construction in cyberspace.
In contrast, the development of an interior structure to serve as a central core for these sculpture became the ideal element in which to employ these new digital resources.
