Bundanon announces new exhibition season to celebrate 30th anniversary

In celebration of its 30th anniversary, Bundanon has today announced the new exhibition season Fantastic Forms, curated by Boe-Lin Bastian and Sophie O’Brien.

Colourful, abundant and joyful, Fantastic Forms opens at Bundanon's new Art Museum on Saturday 1st April 2023 and celebrates the ritual of artmaking and its connection to everyday life through ceramics, sculpture and animation.

Established in 1993, Bundanon was gifted to the Australian people by Arthur and Yvonne Boyd, representing one of the most significant acts of philanthropy in the history of the arts in Australia.

Honouring the Boyd family legacy, Fantastic Forms brings new commissions by three contemporary Australian artists, Nabilah Nordin, Stephen Benwell and Rubyrose Bancroft, into conversation with Bundanon's expansive collection of drawings by artist William Merric Boyd (1888 –1959), Arthur Boyd’s father.

Co-curator Sophie O’Brien shared “this substantial presentation of Merric Boyd drawings represents both Merric’s commitment to a deeply creative life, and his son Arthur’s continuation of this, in his own work and in his support of other artists”.

The Merric Boyd artworks included in the exhibition were accumulated by Arthur Boyd over a period of years. This will be the first comprehensive showing of Merric Boyd’s works all drawn from the Bundanon Collection.

Rachel Kent, Chief Executive enthused “We are delighted to honour Arthur Boyd’s vision in presenting this exhibition of his father’s work alongside new commissions by three contemporary artists at different career points. This dialogue was incredibly important to Boyd as was his desire to connect living artists with audiences”.

Fantastic Forms expands on Merric Boyd's idiosyncratic approach to pottery, the dynamic life force within his drawing practice, and the spirituality that underscored his life and work. Taking a vast selection of his drawings and ceramics as its starting point and bringing them into dialogue with new works by Nordin, Benwell and Bancroft, it explores the endless creativity of the human imagination; and the profound connection between the Boyd legacy and the work of artists practicing today.

For Fantastic Forms Singaporean/Australian sculptor Nabilah Nordin creates three new large-scale bronze sculptures building on her practice of playfully championing the visceral and anthropomorphic qualities of materials, alongside a conscious unlearning of traditional techniques. Stephen Benwell, one of Australia’s most distinguished ceramicists with a career spanning four decades, presents a series of fragmented ceramic figures subtly illustrating forlorn images of the male nude that challenge classical traditions of beauty and masculinity; and emerging Bundjalung artist Rubyrose Bancroft showcases her recent mythical claymation videos.

The Opening Weekend, Saturday 1st – Sunday 2nd April 2023, will present Public Programs celebrating Bundanon’s 30th anniversary.

Image (from left): Nabilah Nordin, Split Spike, 2022, wood, mouldable plastic, epoxy modelling compound, spray paint. Merric Boyd, Post-and-rail fences and trees, 1950, pencil on paper, Bundanon Collection. Stephen Benwell, Arm out, 2018 ceramic h19xw9xd4cm Credit: David McArthur