Bundanon has announced the national tour of the major exhibition Fantastic Forms, a vibrant, abundant and joyful exhibition that celebrates the creativity of the human imagination through drawing, ceramics, sculpture and animation. From 2025 to 2027 the exhibition will travel to 10 regional and metropolitan galleries and museums across Australia.
At the heart of the exhibition is a wide and generous selection of drawings and ceramics from the 1940s and ’50s by Merric Boyd. Collected by his son Arthur and held in the Bundanon Collection, this free-flowing body of work is brought into conversation with three very different practices by living Australian artists – Nabilah Nordin’s large-scale sculptures, Stephen Benwell’s commanding ceramic figures, and stop motion videos by emerging Bundjalung artist Rubyrose Bancroft.
Fantastic Forms expands from Merric Boyd’s well-known ceramic work into his energetic and playful drawing practice, all of which were underpinned by the spiritual philosophy of love and connection that ran through his work and family life. A cornerstone of the Bundanon Collection, Merric Boyd’s artwork reflects the strong influence he had on his son Arthur, both as an artist and as someone committed to a deeply creative life.
Singaporean/Australian artist Nabilah Nordin draws inspiration from Boyd’s idiosyncratic, whimsical drawings with her three large-scale sculptural forms that playfully experiment with exaggerated dimensions and makeshift construction. Like Boyd, Nordin’s practice is inventive, encompassing aspects of everyday life from cooking and socialising to interior decoration. Her work in Fantastic Forms explores the concealment and exposure of found objects, transformed with epoxy resin and painted in neon hues.
Stephen Benwell’s series of 28 exquisite figures in glazed ceramic are, by contrast, studiously worked and intimate in scale. Shaping, firing, painting and re-painting his figures over months at a time, Benwell’s attention to detail manifests as a form of love for these gentle human forms. Presented alongside carefully selected drawings by Merric Boyd, Benwell’s work in the exhibition is the most substantial showing of the artist’s delicate figures to date.
Two claymation videos by Bundjalung artist Rubyrose Bancroft capture the fun of working with malleable materials in real time. In each video, creatures and characters are formed from Plasticine and burst forth to beat-driven electronic music. The 7 Deadly Sins explores a sense of escapism in a humorous retelling of early religious narratives, while Mud captures the creation and explosion of organic material from the earth.
Curated by Sophie O’Brien and Boe-lin Bastian, Fantastic Forms was first presented at Bundanon’s Art Museum in 2023. The exhibition represents the first comprehensive showing of Merric Boyd’s works from the Bundanon Collection and, alongside recent works by three contemporary artists, demonstrates Arthur and Yvonne Boyd’s commitment to engage the public in a deeper understanding of the work of living artists.
Rachel Kent, CEO, Bundanon, said: “We are delighted to celebrate Arthur Boyd’s vision in presenting this national touring exhibition, which features his father’s works alongside new commissions from three contemporary artists at differing stages of their careers. Sharing this dialogue with audiences across Australia is especially meaningful, as it reflects Boyd’s deep commitment to connecting audiences to the work of living artists”.
Sophie O’Brien, Head of Curatorial and Learning, Bundanon, said: “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. We are thrilled that this significant exhibition will travel across the country to captivate and inspire new audiences.”
TOUR | Fantastic Forms
The exhibition will tour to ten regional and metropolitan venues across Australia from 2025 through until 2028.
2025
15 February – 27 April | Wagga Wagga Art Gallery (NSW)
14 June – 7 September | Ipswich Art Gallery (QLD)
3 October – 14 December | John Curtin Gallery, Perth (WA)
Fantastic Forms is a Bundanon Touring Exhibition. The exhibition is supported by the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach Program, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to the national collections for all Australians.
IMAGES AVAILABLE HERE
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MEDIA CONTACTS
To request interviews, further information or imagery please contact Articulate: Siân Davies sian@articulatepr.com.au 0402 728 462; Sasha Haughan sasha@articulatepr.com.au, 0405 006 035; or Rae Begley, Head of Marketing & Communications, Bundanon, rae.begley@bundanon.com.au.
ABOUT WILLIAM MERRIC BOYD
Born in Melbourne in 1888, the second child of artists Emma Minnie and Arthur Merric Boyd, Merric Boyd is considered to be Australia’s first studio potter, at a time when studio pottery was not popular or widely known. His style was distinctive and sculptural, and his use of native flora and fauna and rural subjects as decorative motifs was unique. In 1913 Boyd’s parents bought him the property Open Country at Murrumbeena, Victoria, where he built a house and pottery studio. He studied for one term at the National Gallery of Victoria School in 1910. After World War I, before being repatriated back to Australia, he studied the technical aspects of pottery at the Wedgewood factory at Stoke-on-Trent, England. Boyd struggled with epilepsy throughout his life, a condition which was largely misunderstood at the time and had a huge impact on himself and his family. In the last decade before his death in 1959, he gave himself entirely to drawing, producing thousands of works on paper reflecting a life that was dominated by a strong sense of family, spirituality and creative endeavour.
ABOUT NABILAH NORDIN
Nabilah Nordin is a Singaporean/Australian sculptor based in Los Angeles. Interested in material invention, her installations embrace wonky craftwork, playfully celebrating the visceral and anthropomorphic qualities of materials in concert with community engaged performative practices. Nordin completed a Master of Contemporary Art at Victorian College of the Arts in 2015, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts at RMIT University in 2013. Nordin’s solo exhibitions include Corinthian Clump, The National at Art Gallery of NSW, 2023; Melbourne Now, 2023; Prop Shop, Neon Parc, 2022; Art Cologne, 2022; Birdbrush and Other Essentials, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2021; Covergirl Adhesives, COMA Gallery, Sydney, 2020;and An Obstacle in Every Direction, Singapore Biennale, 2019. Group shows include No False Idols, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, 2022; A thousand different angles, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Melbourne, 2022; SIMMER, Murray Art Museum Albury, 2021; Salient Features, Changwon Sculpture Biennale, South Korea, 2020; 1991, Neon Parc Brunswick, Melbourne, 2020; and Those Monuments Don’t Know Us, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Melbourne, 2019.
ABOUT STEPHEN BENWELL
Melbourne-based artist Stephen Benwell is amongst Australia’s most distinguished ceramicists. In his paintings, ceramics and bronzes, Benwell both references and challenges classical forms, presenting fragments, busts and statues of the male figure. In 2013 Benwell’s work was included in Melbourne Now at the National Gallery of Victoria and a major retrospective survey of his work was held at Heide Museum of Modern Art. Benwell has been the recipient of the Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Award, has been a finalist in the Hobart Art Prize, the Fletcher Jones Art Prize and in 2009 was awarded the inaugural Deakin University Small Sculpture Award and an Australia Council Visual Arts Board New Work Grant. Benwell’s work is regularly exhibited in Australia and overseas and is held in a large number of private and public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra; The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; The Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide and The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.
ABOUT RUBYROSE BANCROFT
Rubyrose Bancroft is a Bundjalung artist from Northern New South Wales, working in ceramics, painting and claymation. At the age of 16, she was a finalist in the Blacktown City Art Prize 2015. She was featured in Time Out Magazine’s 2016 Forty under 40 article, identifying young people of influence. Bancroft completed her Bachelor of Fine Art (Ceramics) at the National Art School in 2020, where her major work The 7 Deadly Sins was acquired. Bancroft has exhibited with Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative and in external exhibitions including BOOMALLI NOW, Hobiennale, 2019; MCA Art Bar; NO SHOW, Carriageworks; and Amnesty International’s Dadirri, 2018.
