“I live through my hands and tools: transforming thick, heavy bone and bronze, meant for massive collisions, into ethereal, otherworldly creations; precious oases in the midst of life.”
– SHANE WILSON
Inspired by the North – the beauty and severity of its extremes – Canadian sculptor Shane Wilson breathes life into the discarded outer garments of arctic impermanence: antler, horn, ivory, tusk, bone; and fixes time in the most ancient of enduring alloys – bronze.
His signature style – the cool logic of a mathematician warmed in the guiding hands of a poet – lives in the uneasy conversation between organic and non-organic abstraction.
Originally from Ontario, Wilson moved to northern British Columbia and then to the Yukon during the 1980s. Conversant in more traditional art forms – drawing, painting, clay sculpture – his interest in working with natural media was sparked after attending an exhibition of antler carvings, the rugged and tactile artifacts appealing to his sense of discovery.
After a period of experimentation, Wilson honed the techniques necessary to express his unique vision while exploring the fragile limits of natural media as diverse as fossilized wooly mammoth tusk and whale baleen.
In 2012, Wilson was commissioned by the internationally renowned design firm Yabu Pushelberg to create a signature showpiece for the opening of Four Seasons Hotel Toronto. His stunning ‘Candle Ice Two’ double-antler sculpture graces the west lobby.
Every second summer, he teaches the art of antler carving at Red Deer College, in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada.
Wilson is currently working on Yukon University’s ceremonial centrepiece (mace), to be premiered during the university’s first graduation in 2020, a carved caribou antler carried in the processional.
Wilson lives on Vancouver Island, British Columbia with his wife Miranda Atwood.
Artist Statement Curriculum Vitae Professional Commentary On Shane Wilson’s Work
