It is with great pleasure that The Commercial presents Stephen Ralph: Messenger, the artist’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.

In a departure from the marble with which he has worked since 2018, this new series of sculptures sees Ralph turn to the matte and porous qualities of igneous basalt to rework the form of the herm, a classical homonym referring to both ἕρματα / hermata, ‘blocks of stone,’ and Ἑρμῆς / Hermes, the Olympian deity of heralding. Like their ancient counterparts, Ralph’s herms mark a threshold between symbolic function and bodily presence with outcomes for the socialisation of sculpture in the public domain.

In 2024, work by Stephen Ralph was included in Roman Spectres at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, the University of Sydney where his contemporary sculpture was exhibited alongside 2000-year-old Roman portraits from the University's collection and Hold the world to its word at Murray Art Museum Albury. Two marble sculptures by Ralph were acquired for the recently opened Olympus Dining in Sydney. A portrait of Stephen Ralph by Mitch Cairns is currently on exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales as part of the 2025 Archibald Prize.