Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, January 25, 2023: Ron Gomboc, an Australian sculptor. (#1761)

Ratimir Marijan "Ron" Gomboc (1947) is an award-winning sculptor from Western Australia. He was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Yugoslavia and received his early schooling in the town of Novi Vinodolski, Croatia. At the age of 13 he emigrated to Australia with his parents. On arriving in Australia he worked as a cabinet maker and builder before joining the Australian Army in 1969. After finishing his National Service in 1971 he enrolled in an art course at Claremont School of Art. During the 1970s he studied art and sculpture at Midland Technical College and Perth Technical College. At Midland he came under the tutelage of Guy Grey-Smith, a notable modernist artist.

In 1982 opened the Gomboc Gallery Sculpture Park in Middle Swan on the outskirts of Perth. In 1994 Ron Gomboc won the Mandorla Art Award with a wood, bronze, and copper sculpture called At the Gates

After the death of actor Heath Ledger, Gomboc was commissioned to create a memorial sculpture that was installed at Point Heathcote in Applecross. The three piece sculpture features yin and yang and a chessboard, a reference to Ledger's spiritual beliefs and his love of chess. Gomboc had been a friend of the Ledger family for over 30 years.

Gomboc was commissioned in 2011 by the Australian Film Institute to design a statuette for the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards.

He has been an invited artist representing Australia at Sculpture symposiums and workshops since 1986, including the Symposium of Art in New Caledonia in 2010 and the Goyang 10th Anniversary International Sculpture Symposium in South Korea in 2011 and the 1st Qindao International Sculpture Symposium in China 2012.

Gomboc is represented in public collections across the world and in Australia. He has exhibited at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 18 times since 1999 and Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe 17 times since 2005. He was a Bendat Family Foundation WA Invited Artist at Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe 2020, is a member of the Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi and Cottesloe Decade Clubs and was awarded the major Balnaves Artist’s Award at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2007.

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