Nikau Vessel in Steel

Jane Downes is a full-time sculptor and designer working from her home workshop in Little River. Her current practice consists of small, medium and large sized indoor and outdoor works made in steel.   Jane exhibits at galleries and major sculpture events throughout New Zealand and undertakes site and client specific sculpture commissions. Her husband Mario Downes, with his knowledge of materials, engineering and installation skills plays a large part in her work. 

“I am interested in feelings evoked by shape, form and pattern, how we react to scale and light and the influence this has on Art, Architecture and Design. I use forms in my work that resonate with me, both natural and manmade. Often common or from childhood, sometimes delicate and fleeting objects from nature, sometimes robust geometric forms from popular culture and industry.

Specific themes in my work include colonisation, security and shelter along with more abstract themes commenting on the human condition, challenging preconceptions of purpose and beauty, valuable and lowly, masculine and feminine, permanence and the ephemeral. These dichotomies are also reflected in my use of recycled, found and industrial materials”. – Jane Downes