Spiritual Resonance: Master Sculpture from Europe and Asia
Nies Oriental Art and Stuart Lochhead Sculpture are pleased to announce their collaboration for the exhibition Spiritual Resonance: Master Sculpture from Europe and Asia, opening in October 2025. The exhibition brings together exceptional sculpture from the Eurasian continent. Created across a wide geographical and chronological span, from the early Buddhist sites of Thailand to medieval Tuscany, from southern Germany to India, these works reflect a shared human impulse: to give tangible form to the mystical through the depiction of gesture, expression, and stance. Cast in bronze or carved in stone and wood, each object belongs to a tradition of devotion in which material, movement, and meaning converge to evoke divinity and inner peace. Among the highlights on display in the gallery, a rare figure of St Francis cast by the outstanding (although now known by experts) Flemish bronze founder by Renier van Thienen will be exhibited to the public in Britain for the first time. This brass statuette once formed part of a large architectural ensemble in a church, and was possibly commissioned by an Italian patron in Flanders in the late fifteenth century. Its rarity is matched by its beauty, defined by uniquely evocative and extremely modern geometrical lines.
Among the Asian works, an impressive, solid-cast bronze of Buddha Sakyamuni from the ancient Mon Daravati Kingdom (6th-11th century) will be one of the focuses of the show. The statue takes a primordial form, with broad shoulders, narrow waist and slender profile, which implies that it was cast in the earlier developments of the Kingdom, when artisans were still in search of the ideal Buddha image. The Dvaravati introduced Buddhist culture in present-day Thailand and played an important role in propagating ancient Indian traditions. This supernal Buddha image is thus an important testament of the history of Buddhism in Southeast Asia. Weaving a narrative across the geographic swathe of Eurasia, Spiritual Resonance invites viewers to reflect on the enduring power of sculpture and reveals the connections between seemingly distant artistic worlds.
All enquiries, high res images and further information:
Chloé Nelkin, Chloé Nelkin Consulting
E: chloe@chloenelkinconsulting.com, T: 020 3627 2960
W: www.chloenelkinconsulting.com