John McGill, Sculptor

A Merseysider, John McGill studied painting and ceramics at Wallasey College of Art before moving on to the Royal College of Art to practice sculpture. On completion he spent the best part of a year in France researching the Romanesque. His subsequent career in sculpture was combined with lecturing for 24 years in the Sculpture Department of Loughborough College of Art. Moving to Cambridge he established the studio in Toft, which opened in 1996.

• One man exhibitions Alwyn Gallery, London 1977 and 1981 and various mixed shows - 1983 > 1987
• Exhibited at Art Space, Henley-on-Thames - 1998 > 2005
• Exhibited at Art of the Imagination, London and New York - 2001/2
• Awarded Sculpture Prize - 2003
• Cambridge Open Studios - 1998 > 2009

Commissioned work includes:

• An octave of winged bells, Northern Ireland
• Organic crosses for churches
• An Indian Hamuman shrine

John McGill works in bronze and aluminium, and a wide range of mixed media and processes - modelling, welding, carving and casting. A childhood fascination with transformations, triggered by Lewis Carroll, has led to a life of creation of objects and creatures that metamorphose into something other. Metaphor, symbol and transformation are the instrumental keywords - "I use metaphor changing the familiar into something new. I search the rubbish tips of art history for abandoned ideas." Natural objects - animal horns, parts of trees - are a major catalyst in his work. Embellished and incorporated as sculpture they engender a fusion of organic and artefact, mysterious new analogies of life and living creatures. A lifetime's collection of casts made of classical and medieval works (Cambridge University Archaeological Museum was one source) also occupy a significant proportion of his artistic imagination. In their transfigured state and transposed to Toft they take on new meaning in their sculpture garden setting.

John McGill cast the plaque, designed by Tom Preece and Sophia Quenby, for the Beacon in Church Lane.

Recent work sees a resumption to a theme that has coursed through the sculptural oeuvre, embodying deep felt anti-war sentiments reflecting man's inhumanity to man. Evolving images incorporate evocative sculptural formations of the human skull symbolizing dark thoughts and deeds.

contact: The Berern, Comberton Road, Toft, Cambridge CB23 2RY
tel: 01223 263950

See also: The Berern