The Leaf

Painter and sculptor Stephen Vince believes in the power of art in awakening the public to ecological disasters. His work is dedicated to the flora and fauna at risk of extinction due to human activity. In sculpture, he is best-known for works in enlarged sizes, with elongated shapes, rough textures and varied use of negative space.

Whenever possible, Vince places his sculptures outdoors, in natural landscapes where the constantly changing light, shadows and the elements add new dimensions to the perception of his work inviting a discoverer’s delight and hoping to spark a conversation on returning to nature something that was taken away from it.

The Leaf, a sculpture featuring single oak leaf measuring to 6-feet, bears randomly applied irregular holes in the deliberately unfinished richly textured aluminum body as a metaphor for the thinning and lacking ozone layer.

The artist wrote about his passion for creating plant sculptures, “I had never seen a rainforest before journeying to Australia in the late eighties. At Cooloola in Queensland I entered this strange world, a vast dim space enclosed by the forest canopy, a unique magic which man seems desperate to destroy. Not far away we came across a ranch where this forest no longer stood, its tree stumps struggling to come back to life. My plant sculptures portray these living things which cannot run away from their aggressors, in attitudes of self-protection and defense.”