Interview by Olivia Williams
“My father had a friend who was a gold, silver and blacksmith who ran a workshop nearby and he took me there and I was fascinated,” he recalls. That early fascination grew into a lifelong practice, spanning jewellery, lighting design, kinetic sculptures, and teaching.
After an introduction to Adelaide’s art scene by Dick Richards, then Curator of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Bauer found himself at the newly established JamFactory, where he trained and mentored students. His career has since traversed Germany, Ireland, London, Sydney and back to Adelaide, each stop enriching his practice.
“In all these places I worked alongside highly experienced practitioners and I learnt an enormous amount from them,” he says. That global influence culminated in a breakthrough in 1989, when Bauer patented a low-voltage lighting grid system that continues to underpin his most celebrated works.
Bauer’s signature sculptural lighting pieces, described by many as ‘light paintings’, are striking for their interplay of colour, shadow, and movement. Crafted from perforated anodised aluminium sheets, these luminous constructions shift in perception depending on the viewer’s angle and the surrounding light. They are at once kinetic and serene, technically intricate yet visually effortless.
The lineage of Bauhaus design runs deeply through Bauer’s work. “I was inspired by the Bauhaus as my father studied there, he was one of the last students to go there,” he explains. “He was taught by Mies van der Rohe (the last Director of the Bauhaus), Kandinsky and renowned metalsmith, Marianne Brandt.” That heritage of precision, experimentation, and pared-back form resonates in his jewellery, lighting and sculptural works.
Bauer’s fascination with movement and perception is rooted in his admiration for modernist masters. “I am fascinated with sculpture, painting and textiles, i.e. the work of Alexander Calder and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy,” he notes. This curiosity has fuelled his ongoing exploration of how light, colour, and structure can dance together, producing artworks that are as architectural as they are poetic.
Teaching has been another defining thread in Bauer’s career, most notably during his time as a lecturer at the University of South Australia’s School of Design. His approach in the classroom was rooted in individuality and expression.
My aim was to encourage the students to find their own personality in the creation of their art.
Today, Bauer works from his Adelaide studio, with his art represented in private collections and galleries across Australia, Europe and the United States. Despite the global reach of his practice, Adelaide remains both a source of inspiration and a creative home. When asked about his favourite local haunt, he doesn’t hesitate: Lucia’s at the Central Market. He’s equally quick to champion Adelaide’s hidden gems, from Zu Design in Gay’s Arcade to fellow artist Aldo Iacobelli. His works can be found closer to home too, with BMG Art on Halifax Street regularly exhibiting his sculptural lighting.
For Bauer, Adelaide offers the perfect balance of community, creativity and cultural life. He looks forward each year to the Adelaide Festival, a reminder of the city’s thriving artistic heart. And when pressed for the best piece of advice he’s ever received, he smiles: “Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty.”
