Pierre Diamantopoulo

Sculpture

14 Jul

Written By Lu Ernest Design .

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Pierre Diamantopoulo is a British sculptor, whose figurative scope is diverse; spanning truly monumental installations and more accessible pieces - made with clay, plaster steel and bronze. His gallery collections often showcase original maquettes of full-scale sculptures intended for the public realm.
Pierre’s contemporary style mixes human figuration with sophisticated, geometric abstraction. Though it can equally look to the past, where he rummages in the toy box of ancient cultures - taking anatomy as a point of departure; creating hybrids in allegorical, incongruous tableaux.
In this atavistic world, another strangely inventive and restive imagination steps out from behind the curtain. An affinity for things theatrical emerges. The carnivalesque, the masquerade and the exotic are liberated, giving this absurdist style of work a curious, edgy slant. Here, Pierre works on impulse - blending dark foolery, the poetic and the literary with folklore and a sort of logical nonsense to create a quirky mythology.
Studio time is also given to the study of birds, equine and many animal subjects; especially the depiction of groups in motion.
When working in ceramic, Pierre’s sculptures are exclusively one-offs, each unique piece informs the next; it is here that they acquire their astonishing articulacy. These can be highly finished pieces or impressionistic sketches in clay, executed with an immediate, freer hand, exploiting the texture of the raw material. Their painted or patinated surfaces are worked and re-worked, layered and eroded.
Elegance and a wry humour are intrinsic in these works and can often be seen side-by-side with the uneasy and the bizarre at the other end of his range.
Hove Plinth was a Hove Civic Society project unveiled in April 2018 as a new cultural landmark on Hove seafront.
In September 2023, Pierre Diamantopoulo’s Flight of the Langoustine was erected as the Plinth’s second sculpture. The piece was inspired by a mangled lobster pot washed up on Brighton beach yards from the artist's first studio under the arches. It depicts four faceless human figures that tilt and fall away - on and off objects that also teeter on a chaotic or shifting stage. They occupy the air and appear to float or flee in improbable spatial compositions.
As the partner gallery to this project, Kellie Miller Arts has exclusive rights to a limited edition of bronzes of the Flight of the Langoustine figures, which can be viewed and purchased directly through the gallery. There are no more than 9 editions to be made of each figure.
In 2000, Pierre Diamantopoulo was an elected Member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.
He has staged several solo shows and a large number of mixed shows both in London and throughout the UK, also having exhibited continually in significant venues in the UK – such as the Henley Festival, Cork Street and the Royal West of England Academy, and was represented in the Cass Sculpture Foundation’s Concept Gallery for Monumental Art since 2001. His art is in many private, corporate and international collections.
Pierre was showcased in the ‘Twenty First Century British Sculpture’ museum exhibition for monumental art at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice in 2002, curated by Tim Marlow and Wilfred Cass; ‘arguably one of the most comprehensive surveys of contemporary British sculpture ever exhibited.’
In 2007, he was awarded Arts Council England Funding and invited to design and install the landmark “Kandi Sky” sculpture, a monumental work in painted steel. Spanning 22 metres, and at 11 metres in height, it stands amongst the “Tees Valley Giants” and Northern Gateway Sculptures.

Works

Funky Run

Flight I, Flight of the Langoustine

Cirque

The Runcible Spoon

Red Breasted Goose

Equuleus

Gulliver

Minoan I, Hare Devil

Dotty

Flight of the Langoustine

Kellie Miller Arts has exclusive rights to the bronze editions of the Hove Plinth sculpture Flight of the Langoustine by Pierre Diamantopoulo. There are four figures and just 12 limited editions of each figure will be made. The following images are digital projections of how the bronze figures will look. Please enquire for price and further information below.