Cupola is delighted to host a solo show by David Mayne.

David Mayne has a close connection with Sheffield – he moved there in 1983 to study Fine Art (Sculpture) and remained in the city until 2004 when he re-located to his current home on the outskirts of Holmfirth. It was in Sheffield that he first started using the material of steel – his studio was also home to a mark maker known as a “little Mester” and the area was surrounded by the steel industry, its associated trades and various scrap yards; a perfect source of materials, inspiration and equipment for a young sculptor beginning a career working with metal.

Now an established artist with many public and private commissions under his belt and an extensive exhibitions catalogue, we are welcoming him back to Cupola for his first solo show since 2016.

David’s new exhibition, entitled Journey is his story of making sculpture and the places and things that inspire him. Much of it landscape – mountains and woodland areas that have been a place of adventure, discovery and more recently sanctuary.

The Journey by David Mayne

26 April – 31 May 2025

Opening evening: Friday 25 April 7:30-9:30pm Hospitality provided. All welcome.

Exhibition venue: Cupola Gallery, 178a Middlewood Road, Sheffield S6 1TD

Opening times: Monday – Saturday 10-6pm

He was the creator of one of Sheffield’s most iconic sculptures – the Steel Bear, located in the Botanical Gardens and has been exhibiting with the Cupola Gallery since it first opened in 1991.

It’s appropriate he makes a return to Sheffield.

It is ‘bear-ly’ believable (pun intended) that it is 20 years since David made his iconic Steel bear sculpture for the bear pit in the botanical gardens.

“The Bear is made in such a way that many people think it was modelled in a different material and then cast into metal, but it’s just a mix of steel plate and rod and hundreds of hours of welding and cutting and polishing. Every piece of rod that created the fur texture was hand cut, bent into shape and then welded in the right place. At the end of all the welding work it took around two weeks to polish the surface so I could be sure there were no sharp edges. When I delivered the sculpture to the bear pit it almost looked like stainless steel – although it was always intended to oxidize over the months and years changing colour and texture as it did so. I never realized just how iconic and how well loved this sculpture would become. I have worked on numerous public art commissions throughout the country but this piece has always been my personal favourite and probably will remain so for the rest of my career.”

“David’s work is extremely distinctive and very popular. Working in steel and wood, he creates both multiples and one off sculptures that somehow talk to us in a very direct way about our physical and emotional connection to the natural world and in particular the Yorkshire landscape. His unique steel sculptures of single animals are very labour intensive and involve many hours of welding, grinding and manipulation of the steel into something that feels warm and full of feeling. The resulting sculptures reflect the power and magnificence of each unique creature. Other sculptures often feature single figures walking, cycling or climbing where the landscape, fissure, terrain or mountain is definitely the focus of the piece. A relatively new development is the use of multiple steel trees or deer on a flat plane where the shadows cast become an intrinsic part of the work. Multiples or multitudes of animals have often featured over the years when the collective body of the many animals form a whole new shape or form. Clearly David has a love of and connection with the environment and in particular with the Yorkshire countryside and the creatures that inhabit it.” Karen Sherwood, Director.

Works for sale.