January 28 - February 13, 2005 Sculpture on the Gulf

Sculpture on the Gulf is a biennial event started in 2003.

Dibble's Geometric Studies have again emerged, but in a new guise. The result of a continued interest in the figurative, here the human anatomy is again simplified to mathematical shapes but are now pushed forward into a crouching position or bent back in soft, undulating forms. The shapes contain a sense of the biological; their forms reveal the metamorphism of growth - the opening of a bud, the development of an embryo, the differentiation of a plant's stem when becoming leaves. The cutout shapes within the forms, characteristic of Dibble's work, effectively lighten the sculpture, pulling the eye from the three-dimensional mass to make it appear as a silhouette. The massive shapes are really just illusion; at first glance appearing to have great volume, but fooling the viewer, for at the edges they taper to nothing, like the bas-relief carving on the prow of a waka or on Maori ancestral figures. Paul Dibble set up his own bronze-casting foundry after graduating BFA (Hons) in Sculpture from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. Since his first solo show in 1971 he has maintained a consistent exhibition schedule throughout New Zealand and further afield. Paul Dibble is one of New Zealand's foremost contemporary sculptors. He has held several prestigious teaching positions, been the recipient of numerous commissions, and his work is held in many private and public collections in New Zealand and overseas.