Gerald Balciar’s art is noted for its readily identifiable style grounded in an in-depth knowledge of animals. He works from his extensive library of wildlife material including photos, clippings, books and numerous study casts and measurements.
He is involved in the creative process of bronze making from beginning to end, and devised a point-up system that revolutionized the traditional enlargement process. His largest marble sculpture, an 18-foot, 16,000-pound cougar, Canyon Princess, was installed in 1995 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. He also produced for the Oklahoma City Zoo a monumental sculpture, Family Pride, depicting a pride of lions.
Balciar has won numerous awards. He says his most prestigious is the Prix de West Purchase Award, received in 1985 for his white marble sculpture of two river otters, River Companions. He won the Prix de West Buyers’ Choice Award in 1990 for his sculpture Sun Stretch, and in 2007 he won the Prix de West James Earle Fraser Sculpture Award. Balciar also won the 2012 Autry Museum Masters of the American West’s Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation Award for Sculpture.
