A message from the Mayor about Sculpture by the Sea 2022

21 October 2022

On behalf of Waverley Council, I would like to welcome the official return today of Sculpture by the Sea 2022.

After a two-year hiatus, this world-famous event again transforms our spectacular Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk, and Marks Park, into an outdoor art gallery with around 108 sculptures by 116 artists from Australia and around the world, including 35 first-time exhibitors.

Highlights of this year’s exhibition include a showcase of sculptures by four Ukranian artists, curated by Viktoria Kulikova, and Sculpture by the Sea is donating the commission from the sale of the Ukrainian artist’ sculpture to the Ukraine Crisis Appeal. Waverley Council also awarded the Mayor’s Prize of $5000 this morning to Queanbeyan artist Ionas Kaltenbach for his sculpture Right to Left, [art work number 51] located at the entrance to Marks Park, near the playground.

^{Mayor Paula Masselos with Kaltenbach's prize winning sculpture, Right to Left.}

Kaltenbach said the sculpture, made of red steel tubing, "symbolises a time of inner frustration- moving in all directions without getting anywhere, yet even when stuck inisde a box, there is still space to move and look beyond".

Waverley Council has supported this event from its first year, and this year marks 24 years of Sculpture by the Sea at Bondi. Sculpture by the Sea is the world’s largest free outdoor public sculpture exhibition and attracts around 500,000 visitors to Waverley.

^{Mayor Masselos with Newtown artist Joel Adler whose sculpture 'Lens' on the Marks Park headland is proving to be a crowd favourite. Watch a video here of the installation of the spinning sculpture.}

We would like to congratulate this year’s artists for creating such marvelous and thought-provoking artworks, and everyone at Sculpture by the Sea for another fantastic exhibition, in particular, Sculpture by the Sea founder and artistic director, David Handley and chairman, Ross Drinnan.

There is always a buzz around the event and the placement of these art works in the natural setting of our coastline and our community headland park, Marks Park.

^{Mayor Masselos, Volodymyr Shalkivskyl, Deputy Head of the Embassy of Ukraine in Australia and Bruce Edwards, Australian Ambassador to Ukraine (standing far left) with this year's delegation of artists from Ukraine.}

With large crowds and very limited parking in the area, we encourage people to take public transport to the event. Buses run regularly between Bondi Junction and Bondi Beach and Tamarama, and the walk from Bondi Junction takes around 25 minutes.

Traffic will be heavier than usual on roads approaching Bondi and several road closures will be in place during the 18-day event, which officially launches this morning, so allow plenty of extra travel time. For traffic info, visit transportnsw.info/events/2022/10/sculpture-by-sea.

Sculpture by the Sea 2022 runs until Monday, 7 November. For more information, visit sculpturebythesea.com.

To donate to the Ukraine Crisis Appeal, visit https://www.ukrainecrisisappeal.org.

Paula Masselos,

Mayor of Waverley