Major Partner
Fullers 360
We've teamed up with Fullers360 to take Sculpture on the Gulf beyond the shoreline.
Sculpture on the Gulf, now on the water
Fullers360 is a long-standing Major Partner of Sculpture on the Gulf. They also manage ticketing for the event, and we simply couldn't make Sculpture on the Gulf happen without them. This year, they've taken the partnership further.
For the first time, Fullers360 has let a Sculpture on the Gulf artist put their work on the side of one of its vessels. The Tōrea, sailing the Matiatia route, is now carrying Swell, a 20-metre artwork by Evan Woodruffe, one of the artists in Sculpture on the Gulf 2027.
Your Sculpture on the Gulf experience now starts before you reach the island. Watch for the Tōrea as it crosses the Gulf, and you'll see the art before you've set foot on Waiheke.
SwELL
What it is
Swell began as a painting. Evan painted it on canvas in his studio, and it was then photographed and applied to the Tōrea as a 20-metre digital print by Marine Protection Solutions.
Evan's signature emerald ribbon undulates along the hull, rising and falling as its greens shift from sea to forest, from hills to waves. It unrolls past floating shapes in soft and bright colours, sometimes connecting with them and sometimes skirting around them.
What it means
Swell takes the Sculpture on the Gulf theme, the ocean remembers the shore, and turns it into movement, flux, fluidity and the thrill of a journey. It also speaks to the sense of adventure and connection that Fullers360 brings to the Hauraki Gulf.
It's personal for Evan too. He was born on the sea cliffs of Castor Bay in 1965, and the Waitematā has been a constant through his life in Tāmaki Makaurau. With Swell, he links his own experience with the kaupapa of Sculpture on the Gulf and the daily sailings of Fullers360.
For everyone travelling to Sculpture on the Gulf on Waiheke Island, the adventure starts on the pier.
The
Meet the artist
What it is
Swell began as a painting. Evan painted it on canvas in his studio, and it was then photographed and applied to the Tōrea as a 20-metre digital print by Marine Protection Solutions.
Evan's signature emerald ribbon undulates along the hull, rising and falling as its greens shift from sea to forest, from hills to waves. It unrolls past floating shapes in soft and bright colours, sometimes connecting with them and sometimes skirting around them.
What it means
Swell takes the Sculpture on the Gulf theme, the ocean remembers the shore, and turns it into movement, flux, fluidity and the thrill of a journey. It also speaks to the sense of adventure and connection that Fullers360 brings to the Hauraki Gulf.
It's personal for Evan too. He was born on the sea cliffs of Castor Bay in 1965, and the Waitematā has been a constant through his life in Tāmaki Makaurau. With Swell, he links his own experience with the kaupapa of Sculpture on the Gulf and the daily sailings of Fullers360.
For everyone travelling to Sculpture on the Gulf on Waiheke Island, the adventure starts on the pier.
In line with the remit to be “unexpected, daring and original”, the selection of artists has often been controversial. Nevertheless, some names reappear over the years, as stalwarts of the exhibition, and others have tried for selection over several years before making it onto the list. The 2003 event saw both a “People’s Choice” and a “Premier” award; at the request of the artists the Premier award was discontinued for 2005 and a financial contribution to each artist made instead.
By 2009 the event took place over three, not two weeks, and included a school’s programme. The focus on artistic education has strengthened over the years, with the introduction of talks by the artists and guided walks by trained volunteers.
Up to and including the 2011 event Sculpture on the Gulf was managed by a sub-committee of the Waiheke Community Art Gallery; in 2011 a limited liability company owned by WCAG but with its own Board of Directors was created to run what had become a challenging and complex project.
The new Board instituted a number of changes, including reversing the direction of the walkway, which made it an easier walk, and erecting a pavilion on the Matiatia foreshore where visitors could relax before catching a ferry back to Auckland. A gallery in the pavilion show-cased maquettes and small works by both the selected artists and other invited artists.
Following a review of the 2015 event, the Board set a strategic direction for Sculpture on the Gulf, which reaffirmed the ‘new contemporary art’ focus of its biennial sculpture exhibition, but with an expanded long-term ambition to make Waiheke a ‘Sculpture Island’.
