Ama Menec

Throughout my life I have pursued my twin loves of natural and ancient history, and spent my teens shuttling between the Museums of Anthropology, Archaeology and Zoology in Cambridge. My natural history sculptures focus primarily on endangered British animals, and those that have made a comeback.

After more than 30 years as a ceramicist I am now moving permanently into foundry bronze. This harder and more resilient material liberates the form from gravity and so widens my creative horizons. By exploring the chemistry of bronze patination, I can also achieve all the colour possibilities previously only available in ceramics. One of my sculptures, Hypnia, was inspired by the bronze head of Hypnos the Greek God of sleep in the British Museum, with my larger version sculpted in clay, and then via 3D printing, reduced down, coming full circle back to a life sized bronze.

Predominantly my foundry bronzes are an exploration of British and European wildlife. My Buzzard and Red Kite sculptures are of life sized female birds to help the viewer appreciate the scale and presence of the real animal. My present projects are of a mantling Barn Owl, a Kingfisher in a threat display, a stretching, yawning fox and a twisting Badger, working alongs...

Qualifications1983-4 Art Foundation, C.C.A.T., Cambridge1993-96BA (Hons) Applied Arts (2:1), University of Derby

2023 Exhibitions
1st June - 30th July Cotswolds Sculptors Association, Creating Spaces 2023, Miserden, near Stroud, Gloucestershire.
22nd June - 29th July White Chalk Gallery Summer Show 2023, 5 Old Swan Yard, Devizes, Wiltshire, SN10 1AT
1st July - 31st October Into The Wild Sculpture Exhibition Summer 2023, Compton Acres, 164 Canford Cliffs Road, Poole, Dorset, BH13 7ES
1st August - 17th September Summer Sculpture Trail Ascott House, Wing, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, LU7 0PT
17th - 20th August Purbeck Valley Folk Festival, Purbeck Valley Farm, Valley Rd, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 5HU
Royal Ulster Academy of Arts, Ulster Museum, Botanic Gardens, Belfast
Sou' Sou' West Gallery, Manor Yard Symondsbury Estate, Bridport

2022 Exhibitions
Royal Ulster Academy of Arts, Ulster Museum, Botanic Gardens, Belfast
Sou' Sou' West Gallery, Manor Yard Symondsbury Estate, Bridport
Winter Open, Heart of the Tribe Gallery, 74 High Street, Glastonbury
Fresh Air Art Fair Ascot with Hayloft Gallery, Ascot, Berkshire
Cotswolds Sculptors Association Gardens at Miserden, Gloucs
Delamore Arts, Cornwood, Devon
Fresh Air Art Fair, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

Selected Recent Exhibitions
Altered States, Shaw House, Church road, Newbury, Berkshire....