ONE-MAN SHOW

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32637, 19 June 1971, Page 21

ONE-MAN SHOW

27 pieces of sculpture

The young Christchurch sculptor, Llewelyn Summers, is exhibiting 27 pieces of work in his first one-man show, at the Canterbury Society of Arts gallery. The earliest works exhibited were completed in 1967 and are subtractive sculptures in limestone. From 1969 onwards Mr Summers appears to have become more and more involved with additive processes, working in lost wax, plaster, and cement fondu. It is his subtractive sculpture that demands most attention. They consist of male and female heads with stylised, though expressive features. Mr Summers achieves in these a degree of volume and successful relationship of features that are handled with some consistency throughout each head.

His modelled and cast pieces, while often more ambitious, particularly where the full figure is involved, become unsure in the construction of hands and feet and in the rather awkward and at times impossible postures some figures are made to assume.

The same lack of anatomical understanding is revealed in a number of drawings that accompany the exhibition, but they show clearly his intuitive feeling for three-dimensional form. The exhibition will remain open until June 27. G.T.M.