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 short 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.
His most recent bronze series entitled “Skullpture” includes cast and carved skulls of wolf, seal, grizzly and black bear, human, wolverine and, as centerpiece, a combination cast bronze moose skull with carved moose antlers entitled “Gaia”.
Wilson has taught the art of antler carving at Red Deer College, in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, and continues to share his craft with artists and collectors around the World.
Wilson lives on Vancouver Island, British Columbia with his wife Miranda Atwood.
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