Building on the techniques of figurative sculpture developed in antiquity, this collection of contemporary sculpture challenges the classical figure by shifting our attention toward the exploration of negative space thus leading us inward. These partial figures offer an impression of the human form, revealing a framework that alludes to our inner landscape, where aesthetic ideals give way to the limelight of introspection.

While Ward remains true to the representational quality and the realistic proportions of traditional sculpture, the Spirits collection crosses over into the abstract and ethereal. Presenting an intoxicating character of beauty, the narrative within the form referring to the mystery of our human condition.

Art critic, Jacqueline Ceresoli, describes them as “bodies in metamorphosis, balanced between apocalypse and the Postmodern, steeped in a lost Classical age, echoed through an ever-evolving Renaissance, in vibrant tension or torsion as they head toward some future utopia”

The Spirits collection includes Angels, Phantoms, and Ushabtis, inspired by a contemporary perception of our inner-selves. The Ushabti Angels are the result of collaboration between Ward and conceptual artist/sculptor Boky Hackel bringing together their expertise in a common language speaking of the past and the future in a story of spiritual awakening.

Blake Ward received his Fine Arts Degree from the University of Alberta in 1979. He went on to study classical figurative sculpture in Paris and has now worked out of his studio in Monte Carlo since 1990.

Ward exhibits internationally at the Petley Jones Gallery, Vancouver, Front Gallery, Edmonton, the Rouge Gallery, Saskatoon, Hilton-Asmus Contemporary, Chicago, Articsók Gallery, Toronto, Galerie Saint-Dizier, Montreal, Maison d’Art, Monaco and Galleria Lumina, Bergamo, Italy.

CV 2015 All Shows