ABOUT MICHAEL MESZAROS

Michael began making portrait medals at the age of 13 under the influence of his father Andor, also a professional sculptor. He continued to make portrait medals while at school and at university while studying architecture, he began making expressive medals. After finishing his architecture course he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study medallic sculpture at La Scuola Dell’Arte della Medaglia (School of the Art of the Medal) in the Mint of Rome in 1969.

He has lived as a full time sculptor since his return from Rome in early 1970, producing hundreds of medals (portraits, commissions and exhibition medals), 38 major public and private commissioned sculptures, reliefs, portrait heads, and a large body of exhibition sculpture.

He welcomes commissions, enjoying the process of working with a client to understand their subject, to reach a conclusion about the essential elements of the subject, and to reach a design which expresses that conclusion. He applies this equally to major work, medals and works of scale between these two.

At the same time, he enjoys making work for exhibition and sale, feeling that the two streams of work support and feed off each other. Ideas explored in exhibition work often have an influence over commissions and ideas and processes needed for commissions can lead to ideas for exhibition works.

Michael has never followed art fashions, preferring to make work which grows from his own ideas and perceptions. He feels it is more important to work to his own ideas, styles and techniques rather than to be bound by the dictates of fashions created by others. He reserves the right to work in a wide variety of styles, scales and techniques, allowing the problem and its solution to lead him to the appropriate approach. Having a number of techniques at his disposal gives him a wider range of possibilities to express each idea appropriately.

The discipline of medallic sculpture has influenced his approach to all his work, encouraging a conciseness and economy of expression and design.

Michael has won a number of prizes in Australian and international competitions and has works in many local and international collections, including the British Museum. He has a number of major works in the US, Belgium, Japan and Papua New Guinea.

He was awarded Order of Australia medal (OAM) in 2012. He has been President of the Association of Sculptors of Victoria 11 times and Delegate for the International Art medal Federation (FIDEM) since 1972.