I was born in Bingara, NSW in 1958 and graduated from SCA in 1979. I travelled to London in 1981 to further my printmaking studies at St.Martins School of Art.

On my return to the family farm in Walcha, I starting making figurative sculpture carved with a chainsaw from fallen timber on our farm. About 15 years ago I began making large abstract constructions and experimenting with a new type of truss beam that I designed.

Exhibitions

Stephen King has exhibited throughout Australia and in China, Japan, the Czech Republic and Vienna, Austria with his work included in numerous public and private collections.

He represented Australia at the Inami Wood Sculpture Symposium, Japan in 2007, won Aquasculpture, Port Macquarie twice and has exhibited in Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 22 times, Cottesloe 5 times and at Aarhus, Denmark in 2015.

His work of twenty years was the subject of a survey exhibition curated by Tamworth Regional Gallery which toured NSW in 2014-2015 and was invited to the First International Sculpture and Painting exhibition by Jiishi Media Art, China.

Awards

The transition from the figurative to abstract constructions culminated in the work “Fallout” that won him the Macquarie Group Sculpture major award in the 2013 Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi. King was an Invited Artist in 2016.

Other major awards include the Helen Lempriere Senior Scholarship in 2020 and the Palmer Sculpture Biennial 2022. In 2023 he was the Transfield Australian Invited Artist. This year will be the 23rd year that he has been selected for the Bondi exhibition since 1997.

In 2020 King won the major prize at Sculptures in the Vineyards, Wollombi and the Major Acquisitive prize at Sculptures in the Garden, Mudgee, NSW.

King has also been instrumental in the creation of Walcha’s “Open Air Gallery” where there are more than 65 pieces of public art installed around the town.

Collections

King’s works are represented in public collections including Parliament House, Canberra, Harbour Trust at Headland Park, Coventry Collection, NERAM, Armidale, Newcastle and Tamworth Regional Art Galleries.

His most major work was commissioned for the Canal to Creek Public Art Collection, Westconnex,

Other commissions include Sculpture down the Lachlan NSW, Walcha Open Air Gallery, Seacres Rainforest Centre, Port Macquarie and Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail at Tumbarumba and Johansen Wines and most recently a major work “Grid Study IV” at the Sugar Pines Forest at Laurel Hill.

Commissions

Commissioned and represented in private collections In Australia, Austria, Czech Republic, England, Germany and Japan.