Paul Vanstone
I enter a maze of stone: huge lumps of rock interspersed between magnificent carved heads,torsos and wings. Suddenly a ghost steps towards me. I almost scream. Thankfully this apparition is just a man caked from head to foot in dust. He smiles. I have found Paul Vanstone.
Jean-Paul Aubin-Parvu, Marylebone Magazine May 2006
I first met Paul Vanstone when he was a student at the Royal College of Art. My wife and I were just starting a Sculpture Garden and had no sculptures and I asked the Professor to bring down four of his most talented students to lunch.
Paul Vanstone was one of them and I commissioned two pieces from him for the garden. He seemed to me to have great potential as a sculptor and so he has proved.
He has gone from strength to strength and I am glad to think that I was perceptive enough to recognise it.
Lord Carrington, May 2005
Paul Vanstone studied sculpture at Central St. Martins School of Art before completing an MFA in sculpture at the Royal College of Art, from which he graduated in 1993.
Following his graduation Vanstone worked in Italy at the traditional marble carving studios near the famous Carrera quarries. He also spent time working in Berlin and has travelled to Rajasthan to learn India’s traditional marble carving techniques. On his return to the UK, and for the next five years, Vanstone became an assistant to leading British sculptor, Anish Kapoor. Consequently, works carved by Vanstone on Kapoor’s behalf have been exhibited at world leading galleries, including the Tate Modern, London.
Since then Paul has shown his work at a number of major galleries in London, including the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as galleries and sculpture gardens throughout the UK. He has gained a number of prestigious awards and commissions, among them being the Henry Moore Award (1991) and the Lady Carrington Sculpture Garden commission (1991 and 1996)
Paul Vanstone carves sculpture from stone, the nature of the material dictating how each piece evolves. His fascination is with the hardness and light reflecting qualities of marble and how this can be transformed to portray the curvature of the human body and the delicacy and flow of covering cloth.
CV and Exhibitions
Solo
- 2011 Veins, Alon Zakaim Fine Art, London
- 2008 Coombe Sculpture Garden
- 2007 Somerville Gallery
- 2007 Thompson’s Gallery
- 2006 Trelissick Garden (National Trust)
- 2006 Dallaglio Exhibition, Thompson’s Gallery
- 2005 Linda Blackstone Gallery
- 2004 Somerville Gallery
- 2004 Lemon Street Gallery
- 2002-2003 Park Club
- 2001 Sarah Myerscough Fine Art
- 2000 Raw Art Gallery
- 1995-1996 Ratcliffe Wharf
- 1993 Hales Gallery
Mixed shows
- 2013 Paul Vanstone and Natasha Kumar, ARTSHOUSE, The Royal Geographical Society, London
- 2013 On Form 2013, St Martin’s Crypt, London
- 2013 Chelsea Flower Show
- 2013 Affordable Art Fair Hampstead and Battersea
- 2012 Chelsea Flower Show
- 2012 A Sense of Place, ARTSHOUSE, The Royal Geographical Society, London
- 2011 Affordable Art Fair Hampstead and Battersea
- 2012 Affordable Art Fair Hampstead and Battersea
- 2009 The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower, Imperial Wharf, London
- 2009 Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood
- 2008 On Form 08, Asthall Manor
- 2008 Thompson’s Gallery
- 2008 Still Another Place, St Martin’s Crypt, London
- 2008 London Art Fair, Gallery One
- 2007 Moncrieff-Bray Gallery
- 2006 On Form 06, Asthall Manor
- 2006 Thompson’s Gallery
- 2005 Thompson’s Gallery
- 2005 London Art Fair, Lemon Street Gallery
- 2004 Kilkenny International Exhibition
- 2004 On Form 04, Asthall Manor
- 2004 London Art Fair, Long & Ryle / Lemon Street
- 2003 Lemon Street Gallery 2003 Commonwealth Institute, Long & Ryle Gallery
- 2003 Art London, Long & Ryle Gallery 2002 Asthall Manor Sculpture Exhibition
- 2000-2001 Cadogan Contemporary Art
- 1997-1998 Cadogan Contemporary Art
- 1995-1997 Walton Contemporary Art 1995,
- 1997-2000 Francis Kyle Gallery
- 1994 Steel heads for Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition
- 1994 Steel figures for British Museum exhibition
- 1994-2009 The Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden Group Shows
Commissions, awards and placements
- 2008 Ian Forrest commission
- 2008 Sheffield United FC commission
- 2007 Hollingsworth commission
- 2005 Susannah Maghal commission
- 2005 Richard Knocke and Gabrielle Bruer commission
- 2004 Alison Reiple commission
- 1998-2003 Assisting Anish Kapoor
- 1997 Scadum Solicitors commission 1991,
- 1996 Lord & Lady Carrington Garden commission
- 1992 Royal Academy of Art Travel Scholarship 1
- 1991-1992 Henry Moore Award
- 1990 Darwin Scholarship RCA
