Radcliffe, Graham

Graham Radcliffe (1934 — 2022)
Graham Radcliffe grew up in Brisbane, but it was his extended stay in Italy—nearly six years in the famed workshops of Pietra Santa, Italy—that profoundly shaped his aesthetic sensibility. There, he immersed himself in classical traditions and learnt to source premium marble and onyx from around the world. These years helped him forge a distinctive sculptural language marrying European finesse with organic, almost ethereal forms.
 
Despite being largely self-taught, Radcliffe’s work quickly revealed a deep, spiritual engagement with material and form. Sculpture, he once reflected, “was a spiritual journey, a lonely journey” . His art was not merely about carving stone, but about transforming raw matter into metaphors for rebirth, peace, and harmony.
Radcliffe was an Australian sculptor of profound sensitivity and vision, whose work explores the deep resonances between material, form, and spirit. Over a prolific full-time career that spanned more than 3 decades, Radcliffe created a body of work that fused classical sculptural discipline with a transcendent, often meditative aesthetic. Best known for his intricate marble, onyx and bronze forms, as well as the extraordinary Phoenix Sculpture Garden on Mt Glorious, Radcliffe forged a distinctive path in Australian art, inviting viewers to pause, reflect, and reconnect with a deeper sense of being.
His preferred materials—marble and onyx—were chosen not only for their aesthetic and tactile qualities, but also for their inherent vitality. Radcliffe often spoke of “listening” to the stone, allowing its natural contours and energies to guide the emergence of the final form. The result is a sculptural language that is both abstract and organic, suggestive of flight, flow, and transformation.
Graham Radcliffe and his wife Margit established the Phoenix Sculpture Garden on Mt Glorious, northwest of Brisbane—a sanctuary for art and nature that would become his life’s great masterpiece. Set amid subtropical rainforest, the garden houses over 100 of his sculptures, each carefully placed to harmonise with the surrounding landscape. The largest is Phoenix Germania, which Graham created to commemorate Germany's reunification. This work is 4 metres high and gives the garden its name.
The site is not just a gallery, but a contemplative space—a culmination of Radcliffe’s artistic and philosophical values, offering visitors a sense of serenity, timelessness, and reverence for the natural world. There are over 100 marble and bronze sculptures, both indoor and outdoor, permanently on display. It has been open to the public since 1995. With
Indoor and outdoor marble, bronze and steel sculptures for sale and on commission.
2006 Commission for Harvey Bay Hospital, Memorial Garden, bronze cast of “Firstborn”.
2017 Commission for St. Margaret’s Girls School, marble.

Graham wrote about his career:

I started my working life as a tradesman, a fitter and turner, at fifteen.

I had no aspirations to be an artist until I was well into my forties. I started painting, but quickly moved into sculpture. I am self taught.

I am one of the foundation members of the Sculptors Society of Queensland.

My first works were in sandstone and steel. In fact I started a business and called it Decorative Steel and Stone. DSS, for I had a family to support and educate. But after my sons had graduated from University, I distanced myself from normal civilisation and started to become a sculptor full-time.

In 1987 I went with my new wife to Italy to work in marble. I have been travelling in this direction ever since. I have had a few exhibitions over the years in Australia, Switzerland and Germany.

In travelling this path, I have come to the belief that we are here on earth as a challenge to find our way “home.”

Just as the earliest men tried to express their relationship with their Creator, I too, try to explore this direction. Each work must become simpler and purer in form, just as we travel to the end of life shedding that which is not required on the journey. Each work must be an offering to God, not man. Each work must be undertaken with love.

Brancusi being a Romanian, believed that on death, the soul changed into bird form and flew to the spirit world. Which is a nice way of putting it.

My work stands in the gardens which I have created and dedicated to world Peace