Stilts Sculpture

Jim Maunder is a sculptor and art educator who recently moved to St. Catharines in the beautiful Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada. Raised in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador – a small but culturally vibrant coastal city at the easternmost extremity of North America, he received his formal training at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. Jim is represented in Newfoundland and Labrador by Christina Parker Gallery and in Hamilton, Ontario by Gallery on the Bay. Jim works in a variety of media including bronze, steel, ceramic, wood, fiberglass and concrete. Exhibiting since 1988, Jim has shown in nearly 30 solo or group shows in Newfoundland, a solo show in Toronto in 2006, and has been included in group shows in Toronto, other parts of Canada and in New York and Tokyo. He won Honorable Mention in the First Annual International Sculpture Competition sponsored by Sculptural Pursuit Magazine of Colorado, USA. In addition to his studio practice he is noted for his public commissions in outdoor spaces. Jim Maunder’s life experiences have shaped his work. He has spent most of his life living by the sea, witnessing the toll on nature and humankind caused by the demise of once abundant fish stocks. His sculptures, whether figurative or semi-abstract, express his deeply held views on the environment, the frailty of the human condition and the resilience of the human spirit. Human nudes and codfish often appear in Jim Maunder’s work. The codfish represents the vulnerability of nature and also refers to religious and sexual aspects of fish imagery. By combining the human forms with fish, he suggests our own vulnerability as a species, and also our responsibility in the equation. With the naked body, he expresses the temporary and vulnerable nature of life, as well as the pure joy and aesthetic beauty of being alive. Recent advancements in the science of genetic engineering and cloning, and the moral dilemmas they present, have added another layer to Jim’s continued exploration of the complexities of the interaction between humans and our environment.