Artists

Rhonda Cao

Bio  /  CV

I work exclusively with the human form in bronze and glass. I have discovered an original language in my personal response to the nude form. The human body is a subject much explored in the history of art, I feel confident that I have developed something totally new and original. I focus on its abstract qualities, reducing the form to elegant curves and angles making each body appear simultaneously both weightless and grounded. I love working with the human form and find the shape, movement and expression that can be achieved by stylising this form exciting and inspirational. I feel the blend of movement, abstraction and balance challenging and I love exploring where this challenge will lead. I consider my work to be stylised and am very much influenced by the classical heroic figurative form. I want my work to be about about form and mood and hopefully viewers are compelled to touch and feel the lines for themselves. I have found working with the male form a particularly interesting challenge - how to stylise without parody and how to simplify shape the movement that is uniquely male. I rarely use any armatures or structure when creating my pieces as they are too restricting. Often the piece I’m is working on has been triggered by a scribble and it does not really have form until I have played around and developed it. There is a price to pay for this – there has been many a morning when I come back into my studio to find the piece has broken or tipped over during the night. Rarely does it destroy the piece – it just creates a new version and even a different direction. I also like to maintain some irreverence in both form and naming to balance the traditional medium of bronze. I enjoy introducing some attitude in to the pose as well as using iconic Aussie names such as Johnno and Bruce to name the work. I really do love it when something about my work, be it the subject or the naming, brings a smile to peoples’ faces.

Exhibitions
2017
January
Singapore Contemporary – Singapore
March
Asia Contemporary Art Show – Conrad Hong Kong
May
Affordable Art Fair – Hong Kong

2016
January
Singapore Contemporary – Singapore
March
Asia Contemporary Art Show – Conrad Hong Kong
September
Asia Contemporary Art Show – Conrad Hong Kong

2015
March
Asia Contemporary Art Show – Conrad Hong Kong

2014
October
Asia Contemporary Art Show – Conrad Hong Kong
May
Asia Contemporary Art Show – Conrad Hong Kong

2013
October
Asia Contemporary Art Show – The Marriott Hong Kong
May
Asia Contemporary Art Show – The Marriott Hong Kong

2012
Songs for Sydney – Global Gallery, Paddington
Go Figure – Robyn Bauer Gallery, Paddington
Best of the Best – The Gallery, Eumundi, Qld .

2011
Ephemeral – Annual invitation exhibition, The Strand, Townsville.
Garden Secrets – Robyn Bauer Studio Gallery
Up the Garden Path – Pine Rivers Shire Art Gallery

2010
The Gallery Eumundi
Group Exhibitions – Robyn Bauer Studio Gallery
Martin Galleries Nundah

2009
The Body Study – Martin Galleries
Whimsy (group) – Logan Art Gallery

2008
From the Verandah – Robyn Bauer Studio Gallery
Legends, Lies & Other Lame Excuses (solo) – Robyn Bauer Studio Gallery
Sculptors Queensland – Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens
Selected for Stanthorpe Arts Festival – Stanthorpe Art Gallery

2007
Body Torque (solo) – RM Galleries
Palette of Artists – Moving Canvas
Maximal Robyn Bauer Studio Gallery
Sculptors Queensland – Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens
Preview RM Galleries

2006
Works from the Stable – RM Galleries
Figures of Speech [solo] – Robyn Bauer Studio Gallery
Moving Canvas – Eagle Street One
Grand Opening – RM Galleries
RM Galleries – Hamilton
Selected for Stanthorpe Arts Festival – Stanthorpe Art Gallery
RM Galleries – Hamilton

2005
Women of Fire – Ascot gallery
Director’s Choice – Ascot gallery
Seven at Ascot – Ascot gallery

2004
Caloundra Art Exhibition
Qld. Watercolour Society – Open Exhibition

2003
Women of Substance – St Margaret’s College
Kaiyar Art Exhibition
Group Exhibition – Hardy Brothers Jewellers

Work