incendiary

David McCracken is a New Zealand born artist based in Auckland, perhaps known best for his piece, Diminish and Ascend which was shown at the 2013 Sculpture by the Sea exhibition in Sydney. His works, primarily made from fabricated steel, have been included in many outdoor exhibitions and are inspired by innovators and engineers such as Carl Sagan, Geoffrey de Havilland and Colin Chapman. His works, which raise questions about the nature and power of beauty, aspire to honour and elevate the status of banal or utilitarian objects to the status of memorable ones.

In 2013, McCracken was a recipient of the Parsons & Brinckerhoff Award for Excellence in Engineering at Headland Sculpture on the Gulf and the winner of the Wallace Arts Trust NZ Sculpture Award.

Additional David McCracken work is available through our sister gallery, SOHO Galleries — view the full collection at https://www.sohogalleries.net/australian-sculptors/mccracken-david/

McCracken keeps adding to his vocabulary of systems and techniques: drop-forging, in which a wrecking ball dropped from a crane onto a sheet of aluminium on a sand bed creates a massive dent; hydro-forming steel into complex compound forms with water pressure; even driving a vehicle over steel sheets to bend them into curves. He asks only that each technique be reduced to the fewest possible actions and remain economical and analogue in spirit.

He continues to experiment with water-borne sculpture, which he calls the perfect venue for sculpture, and is developing systems for large-scale land art. He has commissions in New Zealand and internationally.