ABOUT
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ABOUT ·
Fine Art Sculptor living & working in London.
Josh Locksmith studied sculpture at the Camberwell College of Art before discovering an aptitude for stone whilst studying abroad at the Bellas Artes department in the Complutense University, Madrid. He went on to study a Post Graduate Diploma at the City and Guilds of London Art School in order to pursue his passion for stone, where he was later awarded the position of Carving Fellow.
Behind the work.
“Stone has always fascinated me, the immense, immovable, impracticality of working in stone, outweighed by humanities reverence of permanence. Stone is formed in deep time, is a keeper of time and is as intrinsic to life as it is death. The stone carver is gifted this medium, of time, history, past, present and future.”
Josh’s current work focuses on leaf forms, informed by his training in historic carving techniques, developed over millennia. Inspired by this legacy, Josh explores the fundamentally opposing qualities of leaves and stone, capturing the rhythmic qualities of fallen leaves.
His work is embedded in the tradition and art of stone carving, and brings the craftmanship honed in over a decade working in stone, into his sculpture.
“We tend to imagine stone as inert matter, obdurate in its fixity. But here in the rift it feels instead like a liquid briefly paused in its flow. Seen in deep time, stone folds as strata, gouts as lava, floats as plates, shifts as shingle. Over aeons, rock absorbs, transforms, levitates from seabed to summit.” Robert Mcfarlane.
Career.
As well as creating his own sculpture, Josh is a director at London Stone Carving, who produce classical and contemporary sculpture for leading artists, architects and designers across the UK. Josh co-founded London Stone Carving with three colleagues in 2015. The team has an extensive background in restoration, conservation and sculpture; with members having worked on many of the country's most iconic buildings, such as Buckingham palace, Strawberry Hill House, and the Albert Memorial. London Stone Carving have collectively carried out work on Sir John Soanes Pitzhanger Manor, St George’s Chapel Windsor and the Royal Albert Hall.
The most notable public commission was the pair of royal statues for the north front of the Albert Hall. The team were commissioned to make a pair of statues of Victoria and Albert to commemorate the 150-year anniversary of the hall, designing, modelling and carving the life-sized statues in Portland stone, in which Josh took a leading role.