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Making waves in Bondi, not all of them at sea.
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This Sculpture by the Sea season, QT Bondi welcomes local artist Paul Ewart for a month-long residency and gallery takeover.
If you’ve wandered Bondi’s shoreline lately, chances are you’ve encountered Ewart’s work. Across sculpture, ceramics and large-scale canvases, the Bondi-based artist explores duality, identity and perspective through layered forms, symbolic details and distinctly human stories.
This month, alongside the world’s largest free outdoor sculpture exhibition, Ewart brings his creative universe indoors, transforming QT Bondi into a living gallery where contemporary art, conversation and coastal culture collide.
From monumental sculptures and textured ceramics to expansive canvases rich with symbolism, guests are invited to discover a collection that asks questions rather than offers answers.
We sat down with Ewart to discuss the ideas behind the work, the influence of Bondi and what visitors can expect from his residency at QT Bondi.
Paul, welcome to QT Bondi. For those discovering your work for the first time, tell us a little about your journey to becoming an artist.
Thanks. While I’m officially turning ‘pro’ this year, art has actually been a lifelong obsession running quietly in the background.
I studied at Manchester School of Art before spending two decades working across the UK, Middle East and Australia as a writer, editor and television producer. Along the way, I interviewed everyone from Hollywood stars to explorers, politicians and cultural icons.
Making art was always my sanctuary from the pace of newsrooms and TV studios. This year, I decided it was time to stop keeping it private and fully back myself as an artist. It feels less like a career change and more like a homecoming.
You’re originally from the UK but now call Bondi home. How has the neighbourhood shaped your creative practice?
Bondi has completely changed my work.
There’s something about the intensity of the light, the sandstone cliffs and the energy of the people here. My work Form & Fissure, for example, maps the human body against the local landscape, tracing muscles and torsos against rock faces, tidal pools and weathered stone.
It’s an endlessly inspiring place to live and create.
This year’s Sculpture by the Sea marks a major milestone. How does it feel to have your work exhibited as part of one of the world’s largest outdoor sculpture exhibitions?
It’s an absolute buzz.
The Bondi to Tamarama walk is part of my daily routine, so having a three-metre sculpture installed along that coastline feels surreal. Sculpture by the Sea brings together artists and audiences from around the world, and to be part of that conversation in my own backyard is incredibly special.
We welcome you to QT Bondi during Sculpture by the Sea. Why does the partnership feel like the right fit?
Bondi is full of contradictions, and that’s exactly what I love exploring in my work.
QT Bondi shares that same spirit. It’s a place where creativity, personality and perspective sit comfortably side by side. Rather than presenting art in a traditional gallery setting, the residency allows the work to exist within a living, breathing environment where guests can stumble across it unexpectedly.
That sense of discovery makes it feel like a natural fit.
Your Sculpture by the Sea piece, Both Sides Now, is both visually striking and socially charged. What’s the idea behind the work?
Both Sides Now is a three-metre-tall mirror-finished stainless steel sculpture inspired by Janus, the two-faced Roman god of transitions, beginnings and endings.
At its core, the work explores polarisation and the growing loss of middle ground in modern society. As viewers move around the sculpture, the mirrored surfaces fragment and reconstruct reflections of the sky, ocean and people around them.
It’s designed to create a moment of pause and reflection, asking us to consider perspective and the possibility that multiple truths can exist at once.
Many of your works explore themes of duality, identity and perspective. Why do those ideas continue to fascinate you?
After spending two decades interviewing people from every imaginable walk of life, one thing became very clear: nobody is simple.
We all hold contradictions. Strength and vulnerability. Confidence and doubt. Past and future. That tension is where the most interesting stories live.
Much of my work explores that space between opposing ideas because that’s often where we discover something new about ourselves.
What do you hope guests experience when they encounter your work at QT Bondi this month?
Curiosity more than anything.
If someone walks past a piece and stops for a second longer than they intended, if it sparks a conversation or makes them reconsider something they’ve always assumed, then I’ve done my job.
Art doesn’t always need to provide answers. Sometimes it’s enough to create a different way of looking at the world.
For the duration of Sculpture by the Sea, Paul Ewart’s residency transforms QT Bondi into an extension of the coastal art trail.
Featuring a curated collection of sculptures, ceramics and large-scale canvases displayed throughout the hotel, the takeover invites guests to step beyond the shoreline and deeper into Ewart’s exploration of identity, contradiction and human connection.
Join us on 14 October from 6pm for the official launch, where contemporary art, conversation and coastal culture collide. Whether you’re checking in to the hotel or checking out the residency, it’s a chance to experience one of Bondi’s most compelling local artists from a new perspective.
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