Justin Galligan

For background on the artist and works, see below.

Current Works

About the Artist

‘I enjoy the challenge of taking an everyday industrial product to create a sculpture that has a breath of life and movement…’

Chrsitchurch based sculptor Justin Galligan finds inspiration in the shapes and curves of avian flight, the feminine form, and images from an analogue drawing machine he built in 2021. He explores forms with balance without symmetry, and has embraced the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi – essentially, finding beauty in imperfection.

His mesmerising wave and wing works are created from 60cm steel rods, hand welded into a form mounted on a dark concrete plinth, turning in the breeze.

His recent works also include elongated structures using wire or steel rods, with a rising chair or ladder carrying their own philosophy – such as The Absentee, a surrealist homage to someone who has passed on, no longer here but their memory still present.

More About the Artist

When Galligan was young, his mechanic father would bring home old starter motors to extract the copper wire which would be used to tie up the grapevine and hold the chicken coop together. From early experimentation with the material, Galligan realised a wire is a line in space that could be used to sketch in three dimensions and delineate space.

Over four decades later, he has extended this use of wire to embrace the classic kiwi No 8 wire, chicken mesh and steel rod.