Stephen Hogan is an artist from Bathurst, New South Wales who takes most of his inspiration for his works from his grandfather’s farm.
If you visit almost any farm in Australia, you’ll probably find a pile or seven of scrap metal. Twisted, old, rusted relics, just laying around incase of a rainy day. For artist Stephen Hogan he’s given new life to some of those pieces. He sees beauty where others see scrap.
“I use a lot of ugly steel or should I say beautiful steel. I have a huge collection of pieces collected from scrap from farms and clearing sales. But a lot of my sculptures have been made out of stuff from my grandfather's farm. So basically all my works are really just made up of rejected bits of machinery but the craftsmanship back then was quite amazing.”
His latest exhibition is on display in Mudgee at Rosby Wines. A collaboration with his wife Margaret.
“The main part of my current exhibition is a Remmington 1980’s Typewriter. 250 screws later, it is all unscrewed. I didn't have to cut anything and the best part of the exercise was seeing the engineering in this piece. But mostly it’s just bits and pieces of old steel that finds its way to me and into my works. It’s actually quite funny when I have these old farmers come up to me at my exhibitions and look at a sculpture and say ‘do you know that’s from a 1930’s tractor’ and they can name all the pieces and it’s really great to hear.”
Stephen has had sculptures featured in ‘Sculptures By The Sea’ and has even had a permanent piece placed on display in Mudgee.
In 2019 he won the major award at the town's Sculptures in the Garden competition. More than 270 works were on display but it was Mr Hogan's sculpture, Tribal Totems, that took out the major prize.