André Wallace

The Whisper was commissioned by Sainsbury’s after seeing a maquette of two girls sitting on a railing. On completion the Whisper was shown at the Royal Academy where the Milton Keynes Development Corporation saw it and commissioned it in bronze for a site outside the Milton Keynes library.
Sue O’Brien
[A T.V film was made of the making, casting and siting of the sculpture]

They capture a moment, their story is a narrative that is inevitably and uniquely interpreted by every individual who engages with the work.
Sue O’Brien

A simple boating incident in Dockland, or a metaphorical statement commenting on the political and economic scene?
Graham Hughes – Arts Review

The oars describe a volume of space which extends the work way beyond the central focus of the figures. The boat has become a framework, just as a picture has its boundaries, so the rigid structure of the boat provides a formal contrast to the figures held by its compact shape.
Sue O’Brien

The work creates a quiet, calm and intimate space within this new public square……by stylising and simplifying the human form, the work is figurative yet contemporary.
Mererid Roberts

Wallace worked on large-scale public commissions, creating sculpture for outdoor sites, and pursuing his interest in figures animating a particular space. Although the work was public it had an intensely private face, for Wallace was intrigued above all by the position of the individual within society.
Andrew Lambirth

The male figure sits looking in the direction of the river. The work is open to interpretation but does allude to Chepstow’s past and future aspirations.
Mererid Roberts

A male river-god and female siren by Andre Wallace are two recently completed works commissioned by Newcastle Development Corporation, sited on the opposite bank to the Baltic Mills.
David Lee - Arts Review

The human figure remains the focus of Wallace’s research, but overlaid with references to the wider realm of nature as well as to classical mythology.
Andrew Lambirth

Andre Wallace’s sculptures are based on the everyday occurrences that are part of our lives. His figures are in part an extension of our self-image and sense of our own existence.
Sue O’Brien

The form is human and the activity is familiar, but the images go far beyond the level of imitation into the complexities of harmony and balance of form and metaphoric meaning.
Sue O’Brien

The work constitutes an exploration of form and meaning inextricably entwined.
Andrew Lambirth

Wallace speculates on the individual conduct of life by way of sculptures and drawings which evoke the rights of passage.
Andrew Lambirth

The personal odyssey of existence is alluded to in images of paired-down energy and simplicity.
Andrew Lambirth

The brief was to create a two-part sculpture for either side of the front entrance to the Learning Centre (Wolverhampton University)

The site for the sculptures is a prominent one, not only for the University but for the City. It was important to select two pieces of public art that reflected both the current use of the site and its history.
Vice Chancellor, Professor Caroline Gipps

Thinking Man is an Archimedes like figure, deep in thought and contemplation. The symbols in front of him are clues to the past occupants of the site, its industrial heritage and discoveries of our time. The subtle engravings upon his head reveal the functions and activity of the brain.

The chosen sculptures create a striking entrance and also offer an interesting talking point.
Vice Chancellor, Professor Caroline Gipps

Head resembles a machine in two parts but which fit perfectly together to make a whole. The brain appears as a well – maintained mechanical part and makes reference to an internal involute gear and spur gear, both developed for the car industry.

'It would have been very easy for the sculptor Andre Wallace to have produced a remote figure posed above the passing crowds. In fact he has come up with something so remarkable that Telford the inventor would have been delighted

One certainty is that this sculpture will be appreciated when many others
have simply faded into their surroundings
Lord Northfield of Telford

The Boating series could just be about people in boats, but the work has classical references, to the Boatman taking people along the river of life or the Ferryman who transports from this world to the next.
Sue O’Brien

Wallace is clearly aiming for a massive - yet at the same time modest - simplicity, an archaic quality associated with the sculptures associated with ancient Greece.
Andrew Lambirth

Wallace needed a metaphor for the individual’s journey through life, which characteristically, he wanted to render both general and specific.
Andrew Lambirth

The 3 dimensional, multi-faceted viewpoints invite the onlooker to move around the work to see every aspect and silhouette and every modulation from highlights to the deepest shadows. There is no prescriptive meaning.
Sue O’Brien

The 3 dimensional, multi-faceted viewpoints invite the onlooker to move around the work to see every aspect and silhouette and every modulation from highlights to the deepest shadows. There is no prescriptive meaning.
Sue O’Brien

Its elegant, airy and spacious with cool, limestone flooring, fluted pillars, lofty ceilings and a giant sculpture of an oarsman.
London Evening Standard

Wallace’s work holds something in common with the work of Aristide Maillol and Frank Dobson. Undoubtedly, Wallace’s large-scale work has a heroism and monumentality, a relaxed classicism that both these sculptors evinced. There is evident in the work of all three a similar poise, confidence, and above all, formal clarity.
Andrew Lambirth