Bob Sloan SRUA, ARBS (1940– ) is a distinguished Northern Irish artist whose multifaceted career encompasses sculpture, painting and installation. A Senior Academician of the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts, Sloan’s sculptural works have earned him both silver and gold medals at the RUA Annual Exhibitions. His influence extends beyond his art; as a Director of the Sculptors Society of Ireland (1988-1991) and as a Lecturer in art at Ulster University, Sloan has shaped the landscape of contemporary art in his region and beyond.
Born in Belfast to a family steeped in craftsmanship, Sloan’s early childhood experiences included watching Blacksmiths Saddlers and his Upholsterer father working,. These early experiences sparked an interest that would lead to education at Belfast College of Art and Central Schools of Art in London. this was a foundation for his artistic journey leading him to establish a significant studio in Northern Ireland.
Sloan’s work, often characterised by its exploration of materiality and tension, reflects his deep engagement with both traditional and innovative sculptural practices.
Sloans’ subject matter draws upon many elements- mythology, politics, but principally it is domestic life that inspires him, so that much of his work is ,in a broad sense, autobiographical.
Dr. Brian Kennedy
Former Head of Fine and Applied Art, Ulster Museum.
The [Still-Life] series is about the stasis of life in Northern Ireland; about the relationship of male and female elements in society [from vertical to concave and convex] . It harks back to the quiet simplicities of a pre-troubles childhood; all those shapes from his mother’s kitchen, His father’s workbench, and the stable yard. It suggests that the certainties and assurances of childhood and quieter times are gone forever. Relationships have been “knocked out of kilter.” Nothing is what it seems.
Sloan has traveled a long road .”I’ve lived for the day when I can produce ‘old-mans’ sculpture…..It’s the ability old men have of saying things and not caring; a wonderful freedom. I’m less worried now about how my sculpture is ‘read’. Politically, People are moving away from the boring middle ground, arguing from political extremes, and being prepared to accommodate. It’s the same with the sculpture . I do what I do and that’s it.”
Brian McAvera
Sculpture
Volume15
Number 7
Focus:Bob Sloan
Sculpture is Irish for the purposes of this publication when it has made a difference to the perception and understanding of Irish Culture. And latitude is also extended to the way in which sculptors have made an impact with their work; whether this be in the international gallery circuit, or in stucco-work on Irish pubs, or in the Venice Biennale, or in the provincial art schools. More than merely honourable mention is given to the pedagogical importance of artists such as Bob Sloan who more or less manufactured a sculptural tradition out of nothing in post-war Northern Ireland, in much the same way that as Seamus Heaney and his associates had to perform the equivalent task for poetry in the same time and place.
Review of
Sculpture 1600-2000
volume iii
Paula Murphy [Editor]
Irish Academy of Arts
Rod Mengham
Curator of works of art
Jesus College
Cambridge