Maurice Blik PPRSS
Maurice Blik is Sculpt Gallery's principal artist, with the gallery holding a permanent collection of his figurative bronze sculptures. The themes of hope, optimism and belief in the future are intrinsic to Blik's work. His figurative forms convey an irrepressible joy of life, confronting the viewer with an energy that is both startling and inspiring.
Born in Amsterdam in 1939, Blik is an Anglo-Dutch artist whose work is exhibited regularly at major London and international art fairs. Having spent the majority of his 40-year career creating powerful figurative male pieces, linked, subconsciously, to his childhood experience of Nazi persecution, Blik, now in his eighties, has begun creating innovative new works. His latest sculptures - best described as human impressions - portray abstract figures in transit through clearly defined circular forms. A metaphor perhaps for the way in which we journey through and interact with the world, and the wider universe. With this work, Blik suspends reality and challenges figurative perceptions, whilst demonstrating the playful side of his nature.
Modelling the majority of his originals in plaster, using a mind-bending self-developed method which Blik refers to as modelling 'inside out', he then embraces digital technology to introduce disks to his forms - in some cases splicing them vertically through figures, disrupting the space that his forms inhabit.
Blik's work is in public and private collections throughout the world. He is a Past President of the Royal Society of Sculptors (PPRSS), and has undertaken a number of major commissions. These include: 'For Love of Cyprus', Kyrenia, Cyprus (Arkin Group); 'Every Which Way', National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire (British Evacuees Association); 'Second Breath', UK Chandler Hospital, Kentucky, USA; 'Behold', Middlesex University; Glaxo Smith Kline - London HQ; P&O Developments; JP Morgan Bank; Burmah-Castrol, Swindon HQ; and 'Renaissance', East India Dock, UK.
Maurice Blik reveals his extraordinary life-story in previously undocumented detail, in his illustrated artobiography, The Art of Survival, published in January 2022 by Heavy Press.iNK. Other sources of information regarding the artist and his work include a feature article in The Times newspaper; 'Igniting the Spark' (2005), and three films: Hollow Dog by Clive Martin (2017), 'The Last Survivors', a landmark documentary by Minnow Films, directed by Arthur Cary and first televised by the BBC in 2019; and most recently, 'Belsen Our Story', a film documentary by Atlantic Productions, televised by the BBC on 28th January 2020.
Selected Exhibitions
Maurice Blik & Gus Farnes, The Abstract Figure Sculpt Gallery, June/July 2024; Winter Exhibition 2021: Bowman Sculpture Gallery, London; Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2021, London; 2021 EA Festival Sculpture Garden, Hedingham Castle; The British Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, Oct 2019 (Bowman Sculpture Gallery); Solo Exhibition, Sept 2019 (Bowman Sculpture); Maurice Blik Plasters: The Artist at Eighty April 2019 (Sculpt Gallery); Art Miami 2018 (Bowman Sculpture); Maurice Blik (Solo Exhibition, April 2018), Bowman Sculpture, London; Art Miami, 2017 (Bowman Sculpture); Fine Art Asia 2013, Hong Kong (Bowman Sculpture); 'Face 2013' - The Society of Portrait Sculptors, London; 'Into the Light' - Solo Exhibition, Sculpt Gallery (and selected group exhibitions); Woburn Abbey 'Artbeat 2012'; Masterpiece 2010, London (Bowman Sculpture) UK; Royal Society of Sculptors - Solo Exhibition and artist's talk (2008); Hannah Peschar Sculpture Park Surrey UK (2007/8); Blain's Fine Art (now Haunch of Venison) - Solo Exhibition London UK (1999); Pier Walk Sculpture - Invited Artist Chicago USA (1997 & 1998); Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park- Invited Artist Chicago USA (1998); National Trust Open Air Sculpture Exhibition - Invited Artist UK (1998); Royal Academy Summer Exhibition - Invited Artist London UK (1997 & 1998); Museum Masters Collection Manhattan New York USA (1996); World Art Forum Davos Switzerland (1994); Chelsea Harbour '93 Sculpture - Invited Artist UK (1993); Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London UK (1993 & 1991); Cavalier Gallery Greenwich Connecticut USA (1989); Air Gallery Critics' Choice selected by Mary Rose Beaumont UK (1988); Alwin Gallery - Solo Exhibition London UK (1985).
Click here to leave this website and view a short video of key commissions, by film maker, Clive Martin
Born in Amsterdam in 1939, Blik is an Anglo-Dutch artist whose work is exhibited regularly at major London and international art fairs. Having spent the majority of his 40-year career creating powerful figurative male pieces, linked, subconsciously, to his childhood experience of Nazi persecution, Blik, now in his eighties, has begun creating innovative new works. His latest sculptures - best described as human impressions - portray abstract figures in transit through clearly defined circular forms. A metaphor perhaps for the way in which we journey through and interact with the world, and the wider universe. With this work, Blik suspends reality and challenges figurative perceptions, whilst demonstrating the playful side of his nature.
Modelling the majority of his originals in plaster, using a mind-bending self-developed method which Blik refers to as modelling 'inside out', he then embraces digital technology to introduce disks to his forms - in some cases splicing them vertically through figures, disrupting the space that his forms inhabit.
Blik's work is in public and private collections throughout the world. He is a Past President of the Royal Society of Sculptors (PPRSS), and has undertaken a number of major commissions. These include: 'For Love of Cyprus', Kyrenia, Cyprus (Arkin Group); 'Every Which Way', National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire (British Evacuees Association); 'Second Breath', UK Chandler Hospital, Kentucky, USA; 'Behold', Middlesex University; Glaxo Smith Kline - London HQ; P&O Developments; JP Morgan Bank; Burmah-Castrol, Swindon HQ; and 'Renaissance', East India Dock, UK.
Maurice Blik reveals his extraordinary life-story in previously undocumented detail, in his illustrated artobiography, The Art of Survival, published in January 2022 by Heavy Press.iNK. Other sources of information regarding the artist and his work include a feature article in The Times newspaper; 'Igniting the Spark' (2005), and three films: Hollow Dog by Clive Martin (2017), 'The Last Survivors', a landmark documentary by Minnow Films, directed by Arthur Cary and first televised by the BBC in 2019; and most recently, 'Belsen Our Story', a film documentary by Atlantic Productions, televised by the BBC on 28th January 2020.
Selected Exhibitions
Maurice Blik & Gus Farnes, The Abstract Figure Sculpt Gallery, June/July 2024; Winter Exhibition 2021: Bowman Sculpture Gallery, London; Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2021, London; 2021 EA Festival Sculpture Garden, Hedingham Castle; The British Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, Oct 2019 (Bowman Sculpture Gallery); Solo Exhibition, Sept 2019 (Bowman Sculpture); Maurice Blik Plasters: The Artist at Eighty April 2019 (Sculpt Gallery); Art Miami 2018 (Bowman Sculpture); Maurice Blik (Solo Exhibition, April 2018), Bowman Sculpture, London; Art Miami, 2017 (Bowman Sculpture); Fine Art Asia 2013, Hong Kong (Bowman Sculpture); 'Face 2013' - The Society of Portrait Sculptors, London; 'Into the Light' - Solo Exhibition, Sculpt Gallery (and selected group exhibitions); Woburn Abbey 'Artbeat 2012'; Masterpiece 2010, London (Bowman Sculpture) UK; Royal Society of Sculptors - Solo Exhibition and artist's talk (2008); Hannah Peschar Sculpture Park Surrey UK (2007/8); Blain's Fine Art (now Haunch of Venison) - Solo Exhibition London UK (1999); Pier Walk Sculpture - Invited Artist Chicago USA (1997 & 1998); Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park- Invited Artist Chicago USA (1998); National Trust Open Air Sculpture Exhibition - Invited Artist UK (1998); Royal Academy Summer Exhibition - Invited Artist London UK (1997 & 1998); Museum Masters Collection Manhattan New York USA (1996); World Art Forum Davos Switzerland (1994); Chelsea Harbour '93 Sculpture - Invited Artist UK (1993); Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London UK (1993 & 1991); Cavalier Gallery Greenwich Connecticut USA (1989); Air Gallery Critics' Choice selected by Mary Rose Beaumont UK (1988); Alwin Gallery - Solo Exhibition London UK (1985).
Click here to leave this website and view a short video of key commissions, by film maker, Clive Martin
