Auckland-based Gidon Bing fuses elements of art and design to produce an aesthetically minimalist and textural range of free form sculptures, paintings and maquette design models.

Bing says his preclusion for “organic” materials and a fascination with wood; he has a preference for using plywood, is partly the product of growing up in rural New Zealand which he also attributes to his sense of colour and materiality.

“At the most basic level…my understanding of structure and form was greatly influenced by the New Zealand landscape as well as an exposure (to) and appreciation for Maori and pacific art forms,” he says.

It could be said that a childhood introduction to a diversity of cultures has been the catalyst for Bing’s personal creative evolution; his grandfather was Czech architect Henry Kulka, a student and protégé of Czech Avant Garde architect and polemicist Adolf Loos; his mother’s interests are in architecture and Japonisme, his art historian father collects primitive artifacts and at 16, the sculptor and artist spent six-months in the Israeli village of Ein Hod.

This early exposure to the ideas and sensibilities of the European Avant Garde and Modernist movements as well as New Zealand’s Modernist forerunners proved to be a significant formative influence for Bing.

“I have a great appreciation for many of the pioneers of New Zealand Modernism such as Gordon Walters and his geometric prints, Milan Mrkusich’s reductionist abstractions and Len Lye’s primitivist prints and kinetic sculpture,” Bing says.

It is this appreciation for modernism that appears to have a collective following in the form of avid collectors and consumers as the New Zealand sculptor and artist increasingly garners acclaim and opportunities.

In 2008 French champagne house Veuve Clicquot commissioned Bing to produce a range of outdoor sculptures for the New Zealand launch of their rosé; his architectural models were used as part of Resene Paint’s promotional campaign and collaboration with fashion designer Karen Walker while large-scale metal sculpture commissions and a children’s furniture range are also in the pipeline.

A profile of Bing can be found in the current Issue 05 of Habitus magazine.


Gidon Bing
gidonbing.com

Image above: Nick Bowers