Anne Ross

Anne Ross (born 1959) is an Australian sculptor, whose large fanciful bronze statues figure prominently in various public places. Based in Bayside, Melbourne, she is recognised for her whimsical and humorous artworks, created over four decades, that blend elements of the human and non-human.

Career In childhood Ross suffered osteomyelitis entailing immobilisation of her leg and hospitalisation and, with working parents, spent much time alone, in which she drew intensively. At age twenty and during 1979–82 she undertook a Diploma of Art & Design in Fine Art (Drawing), at Prahran College of Advanced Education. Until 1988 she freelanced as an illustrator of children’s books for publishers Oxford University Press, Longman and Cheshire and Thomas Nelson Australia, experience which inspired and coloured her sculptural imagery. Alongside that work Ross also pursued her artistic interests, renting space at Caravan, a group studio in Richmond, where she met sculptors. Determining to take up the medium, at twenty-five she enrolled as a mature-age student at the same Prahran College, then part of Victoria College, and studied for a BFA in sculpture 1988-91.

Ross was employed as a foundry technician while at Prahran College, work which continued after her graduation and the merger of the College into the Victorian College of the Arts in 1993. She moved her studio to Gasworks Art Park in Albert Park where she started to receive commissions in 1991, one of which, Not Without Chomley remains in its grounds. Ross's training in foundry techniques enables her to produce work more quickly than can those sculptors who rely on others for the industrial processes required in production of large-scale sculpture.

Ross received a grant from the Australia Council in 1992 and samples of her work were included in the Moet & Chandon touring exhibition in 1994. She received ongoing support through exhibitions organised by gallerist Brenda May's directorships of Access Contemporary Art Gallery and May's eponymous gallery 1994–2008.

Works Ross's public works are distributed nationally and internationally, and include Midnight (2015), at the University of Wollongong, Taken Not Given (2018) in Melbourne, and the multi-piece Lost and Found (2019) along the Pier Promenade of Frankston City. Ross contributed a much smaller bronze bunyip to the American Natural History Museum, New York City. The artwork Boing II (1995), has been acquired by Artbank as part of the Australian Government Office for the Arts contemporary Australian art collection. In 2016, the "playful" sculpture M is for Market, was commissioned by the Dandenong Market, Creative Victoria and the City of Greater Dandenong to commemorate the Market's 150th birthday.

Reception Ross's $80,000 The Resting Place (1999) for the City of Kingston which, as reported in The Australian Jewish News, was her then largest work and based on her research into the indigenous name for the district mooorooboon, a factor acknowledged by the mayor as a reason 'the artist was chosen for her skill and the enormous enthusiasm she brought to the project. She references aspects of local contemporary and historical cultural life within the piece in subtle and humorous ways.'

Dance of the Platypus (2001) in the City of Wyndham, On the Road Again (2011) in Lyons, ACT, followed, and The Other Side of Midnight (2012) in Canberra, was funded by the Australian Capital Territory government's Percent for Art scheme, which commenced in 1978 to commit 1 percent of new capital works annually to public art projects. The program was subject to controversy during the 2008 election and discontinued in 2009, so The Other Side of Midnight with three other sculptors' works were kept in storage until, as announced in The Age and in other media Arts Minister Joy Burch 'unveiled the whimsical $187,000 work 'The Other Side of Midnight' by Melbourne artist Anne Ross in City Walk on December 4.'

Ross was also commissioned to create A is for Alexander B is for Bunyip C is for Canberra (2011), a reference to the 1972 children's book The Monster that Ate Canberra by Michael Salmon, the inspiration for the ABC-TV children's series Alexander Bunyip's Billabong. The statue was installed adjacent the public library, Gungahlin, Australian Capital Territory and launched by Jon Stanhope MLA on 13 April 2011. Within three years maintenance costing over $5,000 was committed.

In 2023, the three-part sculpture She gave me a daisy was featured at Billilla Mansion Gardens as an extension of her major solo retrospective at Brighton's Bayside Gallery. In the catalogue of that show, curator Joanna Bosse remarks on Ross's working of patinated cast bronze for her sculptures, emphasising that it is a 'challenging and technically demanding medium' and that in their production she works 'hands-on at every stage' to make complex works:Ross's extraordinary ability to translate poetic, dreamlike ideas and imagery into this ancient, weighty medium with a deft lightness of touch sets her apart as a true innovator. This seeming incongruity is just one of many that lies at the heart of her intriguing works. 2006 Brian Moore Gallery, 294 Glenmore Rd., Paddington, New South Wales 2004 Brian Moore Gallery, 294 Glenmore Rd., Paddington, New South Wales 2002 Brian Moore Gallery, 294 Glenmore Rd., Paddington, New South Wales 2001 Beaver Galleries, Anne Ross: Sculpture, 81 Denison St, Deakin, ACT 2001 Beaver Galleries, Cha, Cha, Cha, 81 Denison St, Deakin, ACT 1999 Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Redfern, Sydney 1997 Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Redfern, Sydney 2012: 14 July–26 August: 2012 Paul Guest Drawing Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, Victoria 2010 Bic Show, White Gallery, Milan, Italy 2010, Theresienstadt – Drawn from the Inside, Jewish Museum of Australia 2008 Who Let the Dogs Out. The dog in contemporary Australian art. Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery NSW, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, NSW 2008 Monobrow Show, Hell Gallery, Richmond 2008 Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne 2007 McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Victoria 2007 New Under the Sun, Jewish Museum of Australia, and touring. 2007 Prometheus Visual Arts Award, Queensland 2006 Melbourne International Arts Festival, Unsettled Boundaries, The Idea of the Animal, RMIT Gallery, Storey Hall, Melbourne 2006 Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne 2005 McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Victoria 2005 Art and Humour, Brenda May Gallery, Sydney 2005 Prometheus Visual Arts Award, Queensland 2004 Inaugural Exhibition, Heiser Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland 2003 McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Victoria 2003 Markers of Place, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery 2002, 2 November–8 December: The Year In Art, S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney 2002 The Animal State, Manning Regional Art Gallery, NSW 2002 The Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, NSW 2002, 1 June–21 July: Salon des Refuses, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney 2002 Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne 2001 Menagerie @ Treasury, Gold Museum, Melbourne 2001 Sculpture Now, Brian Moore Gallery, Sydney 2001 Peer Pressure, Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Sydney 2000 Toowoomba Biennial Art Award, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery 2000 Melbourne Art Fair 2000, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne 2000 Conrad Jupiters 2000 Art Prize, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland 1999 The 30th Alice Prize, The Araluen Centre, Alice Springs 1999 We Are Australian, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne 1999 A4 Art, West Space Inc, Footscray 1999 Nillumbik Art Award, Eltham Community Centre, Victoria 1998 Sixth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melb. 1998 Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland 1998 Salon des Refuses, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney 1997 Salon des Refuses, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney 1997 Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland 1997 Nillumbik Art Award, Eltham Community Centre, Victoria 1996 Group Show, curated by Anne Loxley, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Sydney 1996 Mixed Platter, Access Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria 1996 Fifth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melb. 1995 3rd Annual Contemporary Art Auction, Art Gallery of New South Wales 1994 Moet & Chandon Touring Exhibition: Art Gallery of Western Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria 1993 Gasworks Outdoor Sculpture Show, Southgate, Melbourne 1993 Small Works – Two, Roar 2 Studios, Fitzroy 1993 Figurative Sculptors, Victorian College of the Arts Gallery, Melbourne 1992 Second Victorian Contemporary Sculpture Show, Kyneton, Victoria 1992 Gasworks Outdoor Sculpture Show, Gasworks, Albert Park 1991 Gasworks Outdoor Sculpture Show, Gasworks, Albert Park

Collections

City of Melbourne Arts ACT, Canberra City of Port Phillip Wyndham City Council Westfield, Southland Shopping Centre, Victoria Swire Properties Limited, Hong Kong Private and corporate collections in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and U.S.A.

Gallery