ORANGUTAN IN ART

Thomas Bucich

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

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USA Born, Australian resident since 1990.

New York native Thomas Bucich’s lifelong passion for fine art evolved into a successful career in the worlds of art and design following his classical training at New Yorks Art Students League and Parsons School of Design. In 1990 Thomas moved to Australia where he began his Art and Design practice in Sydney. Dividing his time between his studios in Sydney, the Northern Beaches and the Southern Highlands;  Thomas creates works in a variety of mediums,  including mixed media, cast bronze and stainless steel, carved stone, and works on paper and canvas.

ARTISTS STATEMENT

From an early age, I have actively pursued the study of art and design. Early interest in classical sculpture led me to stone carving and later onto bronzes cast from wax originals. Beginning with study of the classic works of Michelangelo, Bernini and on to Henry Moore and Alberto Giacometti, my work has developed into pieces that are inspired by classical proportion and technique within a modern context.

Figurative themes have  included the combination of the human form, architecture and landscape. Inherent in these works is an ambiguity, relationship and inter-relationship between interior and exterior, foreground and background, figure and landscape. The human form remains the theme of the majority of my pieces. The form though identifiable, is abstracted through various processes. Proportions are often elongated in a manneristic style, and poses are exaggerated to the point of being on the verge of physically impossible. The overall external gesture is more of an expression of the inner self. The self is represented through the body which is often created as a shell, skin or armour. Moving around the figure often reveals the visible internal space.

Since moving to Australia in 1990, I have developed an obsession with the Australian landscape. The ruggedness of the natural environment, the sculptural quality of the landscape and the richness of colour and texture has inspired a series of mixed media pieces, paintings and sculptures. 

The human form is expressed in stone and bronze and through mixed media on paper. Through both two and three dimensional works, I attempt to capture the energy and emotion within the nude. The form, movement and texture only serve to express the spirit within. Most recently, my work illustrates a progression from the more classically inspired genre of my earlier work towards the gestural and textural. With a consistent passion for expressing the human condition through both drawing and sculpting, my latest works have taken on a much more fluid and emotive attitude. 

Although many pieces still maintain a somewhat classical gesture, there is an increase in the amount of exaggeration and asymmetry within the form. The strokes used to create the wax or clay originals prior to bronze remain an important element in the final piece. The gesture of applying impermanent material is captured in the cast and made permanent in the bronze final piece.

The works in stone have a more sedate attitude. They sit more trapped within their heavy material boundary in contrast to the freer fluid bronzes. The material clearly dictates the final form and gesture of each piece. Even with the various stone used, due to their densities and reaction to the blow from the chisel, pieces in basalt vary greatly from marbles and onyx. The natural stone thereby dictating the form it will ultimately take. With the stone works, I incorporate the contrast of heavily hammered versus polished areas creating texture that in turn captures or deflects light and reflection.

I am not really interested in the depiction of reality, which has been perfected and now digitally 'over-perfected'. I am more interested in capturing a gesture, a mood, the essence of the depicted subject. 

Inspired by the beauty of the imperfect in nature, I strive to create an aesthetic through making marks; whether with steel chisels scratching and cutting stone, playing rough against smooth, through the process of wax transforming to bronze, or through brush and ink staining paper​

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