One of today’s leading figurative sculptors, Steven Whyte prides himself on creating more than a physical likeness, imparting his work with both authenticity and spirit.
Whyte has been a professional sculptor for more than twenty-five years and has installed more than sixty size or larger figures in England, the United States and Asia. A former vice president of the Royal Society of Portrait Sculptors, Whyte has also been honored to have his portraits acquired by the Smithsonian Institution for the National Portrait Gallery’s and Museum of African American History and Culture’s permanent collections. Among his many honors, Whyte was named the 2016 Sports Artist of the Year, was the 2021 recipient of the National Sculpture Society’s, Stanley Bleifeld Memorial Award and the 2022 Champion of the Arts for Monterey County.
His accomplishments as an artist have made him sought after for public memorials with a strong connection to the community. He has created numerous major monuments including the 40-foot Aggie War Hymn Monument, for Texas A&M University; The National Military Tribute for Bob Hope in San Diego; Jumbo the Elephant for Tufts University, A Monument to John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row in Monterey, California, and Joseph Vaughn for Furman University in South Carolina.
His Women’s Column of Strength located in San Francisco is a 10-foot sculpture that memorializes the controversial subject of the “comfort women” in a tribute that celebrates memory, resilience and justice. The work was named one of the top monuments of the year in 2017 by Smithsonian Magazine. A sister monument with a greater focus on interaction was unveiled in Seoul, South Korea in August 2019.
Whyte attended the Sir Henry Doulton School of Sculpture under the mentorship of British Sculptor Dame Elisabeth Frink. He works can be seen in his open monument studio in Carmel, California and at a gallery in Palm Desert, California.
Describing with work Whyte has said, “I’ve trained as a sculptor of people, and I’ve made my career on both private commissions and public works of sculpture. Representing people is my calling and the subjects are diverse and often compelling, whether historical or current and whether real or symbolic and sometimes, powerfully both. I work to create characters of yesterday's community and today's society for tomorrow's viewer. I manipulate clay to found into bronze for consideration by an audience in the home, the street and the gallery.”
