Awakening forms: Vincas Jomantas and Clifford Last

This exhibition explores the work of two pioneering Australian sculptors: Clifford Last and Vincas Jomantas. Both artists played pivotal roles as founding members of the highly influential Victorian Centre 5 group whose lasting impact on Australian sculpture can be felt in Australia’s architectural landscape to this day. With works drawn from McClelland’s own extensive collection, Awakening Forms follows the journey of these two immigrant Australian sculptors from the influence of their retrospective British and Lithuanian backgrounds to their own invigoration of Australian sculpture from the 1950s onwards. From the early compositional figurative forms to the accomplished cool geometric and machine like sculptures that would mark their later works, both artists demonstrated a lifelong experimentation and passion for sculpture.