New Edinburgh exhibition for sculptor who created iconic Leith Walk giraffes
An Edinburgh art gallery has announced details of a new exhibition of work from Helen Denerley, one of the UK’s leading wildlife sculptors.
Perhaps best known in Scotland for her much-loved Dreaming Spires giraffes, a mother and calf standing at the top of Edinburgh’s Leith Walk, Helen is celebrated for her ability to capture the movement, character and vitality of the natural world through metal. The exhibition will see 15 new sculptures on display in Morningside Gallery.
Working from her studio on a remote hillside in rural Aberdeenshire, Helen creates sculptures of animals and birds from salvaged machinery, tools and industrial scrap, with a distinctive sculptural language which fuses the mechanical and natural world and expresses her life-long interest in animals, ecology and the environment.
Fundamental to her practice is an understanding of form, underpinned by meticulous observation and draughtsmanship. Sculptures often begin on paper, sometimes on enormous sheets pinned to the studio wall, where life-sized forms in metal gradually emerge. This close study of anatomy, structure and movement provides the foundation for her work, and enables her to recognise in an instant a piece of metal that will create the wing of a crow or the curve of a cow’s belly.
Eileadh Swan, director of Morningside Gallery said,
“We’re so excited to be showing Helen’s incredible work at Morningside Gallery for the first time. Her use of negative space will be familiar to anyone who knows her Leith Walk giraffes, featuring gaps and openings within the sculptures that allow the imagination to complete what the eye cannot see. We’ll be welcoming Helen for a private view to launch the exhibition on Friday 13th November and are looking forward to sharing her very special work here in Edinburgh.”
Based at Church Hill in Morningside, the gallery will display 15 new sculptures for the exhibition, which can also be viewed online for anyone who can’t make it to Edinburgh. Alongside Helen Denerley’s work, the gallery will also be showing an exhibition of new paintings from acclaimed Scottish artist Beth Robertson Fiddes.
The exhibition will run in the gallery from Saturday 14th - Sunday 29th November, and is open to the public.