john wolter

“My sculptures are all hand-formed and merged together from various shaped pieces of metals. I love the journey we travel together as they take shape and grow in front of me to each become an individual and unique piece of art.”

John Wolter was born in Gisborne in 1965. After extensive overseas travel and living abroad in Australia and Sweden, he settled with his family in sunny Motueka at the top of the South Island, establishing a home, studio and gallery. John has been a full-time artist for over a decade. During this time John has worked and experimented with a range of mediums including furniture design and metalwork. Today the metalwork process is most alluring, and he works predominantly in this medium, producing one-off sculptural works.

John enjoys the physical aspect of his practice, using hand tools like hammers, grinders and blow torches. The colours produced when heating metals and the expressive curved forms he can achieve from copper and steel offers the artist endless inspiration. He has become well known for his series of figures in vibrant poses and confident stances, often with an underlying playful narrative. His pieces come to express inner psychology and external physical experience.

Unique and creative installations frequently accompany his work; figures are suspended from rocky outcrops; sculptures hang from wire to create the illusion of a climber and curved forms come to imply kinetic movement. These effects offer a sense of humour and accessible entry point to these technically impressive sculptural works. His figures convey a moment captured, and the forms are a celebration of the human spirit.