THE ARTIST

Wendy Hendelman has been sculpting in stone for more than 25 years. Her initial forays into sculpture caught the eyes of several discerning figures in the art world, and the young artist was invited to apprentice with renowned sculptor Chaim Gross, who she credits with teaching her how to use tools to express her artistic vision more powerfully.

Subsequent residencies with Andrea Grassi and Jose De Creeft, and at Italy’s renowned Pietrasanta, helped her to refine her work, which has been represented by galleries and dealers in New York, London, Paris, Berlin and Sydney.

Parisian art dealer Adele Segal contends that “the most astonishing element with each of Hendelman’s stone figures is that she has enabled the stone to speak in understated harmony. Aside from restrained carving, it is impossible not to surround the figures with visions of a heroic and compelling human journey. In Hendelman’s work, it is the breath of life within the cold artifact that makes the journey irresistible and rewarding. ”

Berlin gallery owner, Helmut Schulz, believes that her sculptures “defy definition by period; they speak of Greco-Roman antiquity yet flow from her hand with the unspoken simplicity and pure line of the minimalists. There is power in what she leaves undone in working the stone, with areas of untouched natural beauty that enhance and surround the more finished face and torso like the prize of an archeological dig. ”

Hendelman’s most ambitious work to date is her “Tribes” collection, 99 sculptures inspired by the diversity of the human family.