Sean Henry was born in Woking in 1965. He studied at Bristol Polytechnic (1984 - 1987) and at the University of California (1991). He lives and works in London. His first solo show was in London in 1988 and more recently, his thirteenth, in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles in 2006. He has exhibited his work in England…
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Sean Henry was born in Woking in 1965. He studied at Bristol Polytechnic (1984 - 1987) and at the University of California (1991). He lives and works in London.
His first solo show was in London in 1988 and more recently, his thirteenth, in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles in 2006. He has exhibited his work in England, America, Australia, Italy, Holland, Sweden and Germany in the interim, and won the Villiers David prize in 1998. Versions of his work Man With Potential Selves, which was supported by the Cass Sculpture Foundation, are now sited both in Newcastle city centre and at the Cumberland Hotel, Marble Arch, London. Current projects range in scale from the intimate 10cm deep relief sculpture Hotel Room to Couple, a 13m high, 18m wide bronze and steel sculpture to be sited 250m out to sea at Newbiggin-By-The-Sea in Northumberland, in late 2007. Henry is also working on a group sculpture commission for the new Schringa Museum of Realist Art in Spanbroekerweg, Holland.
Henry has become adept at the manipulation of scale and almost always avoids life-sized representation. He explores the narrative capabilities of sculpture through a variety of strategies; by using more than one figure; by the economical use of contemporary iconography; and by a masterful ability to suggest psychological presence. His figurative sculptures are self-contained, often pensive, preoccupied by their inner imaginings and are even slightly melancholy. They exude what the ancient Greeks used to call sophrosyne, or self-control. This sense of being grounded is central to Henry's figures and creates their strong physical presence, their sense of being and enduring.
