Jon Buck

Jon Buck was born in Bristol in 1951. He studied at Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham (1975-79), and Manchester Polytechnic (1979-80). Following his studies he was appointed Fellow in Sculpture at Gloucestershire College of Arts and Technology, Cheltenham (1980-81), and was artist in residence for Thamesdown Borough Council (1984-85), financed by Southern Arts.

Like many artists, Buck supports his work through teaching. He is currently an associate lecturer responsible for sculpture at Southampton Institute, while maintaining a studio in Bath.

Human and animal form and the natural world lie at the heart of Jon Buck's art. He has always eschewed fashion, believing in his own vision, and linking the physical processes of modelling in clay and plaster and casting into bronze with the emotional and psychological content of his compositions. Over the past few years he has moved from complex, multiple forms towards more simplified, iconic images of humans, animals and birds with surfaces that are intricately textured with symbols: an imagined language of the gods.

Jon Buck has exhibited regularly since 1980, mostly in Britain, as well as in America, Belgium, France and Spain. He has also undertaken sculpture commissions, and these can be seen in Canary Wharf, London; Deal Pier in Kent; the Carnegie Library, Merthyr Tidfil; the new British Consulate-General in Hong Kong; John Street, Porthcawl; the Magistrate Courts, Harlesden, London, the Simon Flavel Cancer Research Centre, Southampton and 'In the Swim', West Quay shopping centre, Southampton.