The first thing that greets you as you approach Pt Leo Estate Winery Sculpture Park is the arresting sculpture dominating its forecourt.

Called ‘Grand Arch’, it certainly lives up to its name. Built from steel and with a smooth painted black surface, it draws your attention immediatey, and grows in stature and shape with every step you take towards it.

Created by acclaimed and prolific sculptor, Inge King in 2011, the ‘Arch’ represents King’s staunch modernist principles and clever knack of integrating sculpture with architecture.

King’s other significant public commissions include the Royal Australian Airforce Memorial (1973) in Canberra, ‘Forward Surge’ (1974-1982) outside the Melbourne Arts Centre and Sentinel (2000) on the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne.

To say I was impressed by Inge King’s ‘Grand Arch’ at the doors of Pt. Leo Estate, would be an understatement. But to walk into the building and be greeted by beautifully curated wine displays, inviting bar table settings and a view beyond to die for deserves another accolade of its own.

Then comes another jaw drop. Outside the endless windows lies an exciting surprise – gargantuan sized sculptures looming from the grass at varying intervals, dotted here and there amongst lofty trees and perfectly landscaped gardens.

A digital galloping horse on a distant massive screen is mesmerising! But the piece de resistance? The powerful and dramatic cinematic backdrop of Bass Strait’s sparkling blues not far beyond.

A desire to wander the racks of wine and finger the stylish Pt Leo Estate merch is strong, but the pull of the sculptural vista outside is the winner. We pay our small entry fee at reception and are off like rabbits, into this excitingly artistic unknown.

The Sculpture Park’s outdoor gallery is set on 16.5 acres of landscaped grounds offering a gentle promenade around winding paths that lead from one sculptural large-scale masterpiece to another, 70 in total!

Our first encounter is with Deborah Halpin’s playfully surreal, large-scale mosaic piece called ‘Portal To Another Time and Place’. Set in front of a field of grapevines, it’s a fabulously colourful Picaso-style arch of happiness, and the perfect greeting as we enter the park.

Next a group of layer-stacked stone figures ‘Hazel and Ma’aseyahu’ (2011) by sculptor Boaz Vaadia make us pause and wonder at their silent, meeting-style arrangement. “I work with nature as an equal partner” Boaz says, “The strongest thing I address is that primal connection of man to earth”.

Our path continues past a multitude of giant sculptures in a neverending diversity of shapes, colours and mediums. There’s ‘Luke’ (2008), a tall, columnar, organic form-like sculpture in bronze by Tony Cragg, that looks like melting chocolate and morphs in character as you walk around it.

Industrial-style works like Lenton Parr’s red painted steel ‘Vega’ (1969/2012) and Michael Le Grand’s blue ‘Tsunami’ (1997) sprawl over the grass like discarded agricultural machinery and a giant girl’s misplaced hair ribbons.

The paths are extensive and sculptures can be seen from all angles and distances, together with other works depending on your position along the walkway. We take a new direction in order to reach a massive bronze head in the distance that has peaked my interest .

Along the way we pass Andrew Rogers’ fluid bronze composition ‘Weightless 9’ (2009) and Barry Flannagan’s bronze bunny ‘Drummer’ (1996). Around the corner lies ‘Unearthed Bronze Eroded Melpomene’ (2021), a perfect example of Daniel Arsham’s deep examination into renewal by combining classical relics with protruding crystaline elements.

Bruce Armstrong’s ‘Eagle’ (2002) totem in painted cypress is arresting. As are the pure white, serenely floating organic shapes of Adrian Mauriks’ ‘Impulse’ (2017), carved from polyurethane foam and coated in a sleek, resilient resin. The objects resemble stylized birds, plants, and organic clouds, suggesting continuous movement and change as they float silently over their watery base.

We stop for selfies in Jappe Hein’s ‘Semi-circular Mirror Labrynth’ (2015), before admiring Todd Stuart’s ‘Shhh….. don’t tell the world’ (2015) creation in bronze.

You can’t miss Andrew Rogers’ towering and dynamic stainless steel ‘Rise 1’ (2010) as it surges upward from its narrow base into a voluminous superstructure that either folds in on itself or expands depending on your vantage point.

Not to be outdone, ‘Mirri’ (2018) by Reko Rennie stands tall and proud as an impactful symbol of the artist’s aboriginal identity. Its bold colours and broad chevrons showcase his geometric shield-like style, and give a nod to his early years as a creator of provocative, gaudy graffiti and urban street art.

As we pass along an imposing yet neatly trimmed hedge, we emerge through a leafy gateway and find ‘Laura’ (2013), the immense cast iron head that had been in our sights from the beginning of our walk. She is surprisingly narrow, but solid and silently arresting. She is the work of Jaume Plensa, whose hallmark monumental female heads provoke a perception of sleeping muses, eyes closed in reverie or meditation.

From muse to modernism, we finally arrive at the vibrant, unmistakable work of Yoyoi Kusama, Japan’s most successful living artist. Her work ‘Pumpkin’ (2019) is an explosion of her trademark polka dots and sits as a monumental stand-alone sculpture representing Kusama’s globally famous motiff inspired by her deep-seated childhood experiences.

Finally, our path takes us to the edge of the Sculpture Park’s world and the expansive water beyond. Here, we sit and admire its calm expanse as our eyes are drawn from one eccentric new sculpture to another. There’s Anthony Prior’s sweeping, curvilinear ‘Horizons’ (2011) standing against the sky like a stylised staircase, Erwin Wurm’s ‘Fat Convertible’ (2019), a bloated silver fat car symbolising consumer culture and capitalist excess in a humorous yet ultimately serious social commentary.

Also perched on the water’s edge stands ‘Big Boy’ (2016) by Zadok Ben-David, a corten steel cut-out based on the artist’s own photgraph of a boy with a soccer ball glimpsed on the streets of Portugal.

Bronze figure ‘Lady With Flowers’ (2017) is a delightfully whimsical work by Dean Bowen which begs a Kodak moment. But finally we have reached our other goal – ‘Galloping Horse’ (2012) by Julian Opie, an LED double sided monolith, inspired by a tiny galloping horse the artist noticed on a Korean taxi meter!

Culturally sated, we turn back towards Pt. Leo’s restaurant and head inside for lunch and a wine tasting, but not before we take in a final sweep of the sculpture Park’s amazing vista and a quick closeup of KAWS’ monumental cartoon-like character, ‘Share’ (2020), clutching a well-loved BFF, expressing companionship in an “age of loneliness”.

In fact, this painted bronze icon of KAWS’ work is also a reflection of the sculpture Park itself- A joyous fusion of Art and Life.

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