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Closed: Reopening May 2025

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A cluster of ceramic hand-built vases and jugs with painted shapes in shades of off-white, blue, pink and black

Angela Brennan: Forms of life

When

This exhibition has now ended.

Location

The Potter Museum of Art, Cnr of Swanston St and Masson Rd, Parkville

Forms of life is a response by Melbourne-based artist Angela Brennan to the University of Melbourne’s collection of Greek and Cypriot artefacts.

Featuring a newly-commissioned body of work, Brennan’s ceramics, drawings and fabric works will be presented alongside objects from the University’s antiquities collection. Informed by stylistic properties such as shape, decorative marks, and material textures embedded in the artefacts, Brennan’s new work considers the question of how premodern artefacts may contribute to contemporary practice.

About the artist

Angela Brennan has been an important figure in Australian contemporary art since the 1990s when she emerged as part of an influential group of artists reengaging with colour abstraction. In recent years, Brennan has turned her attention to ceramics, which she employs with the same exuberant approach to colour and form evident in her paintings. Angela Brennan is represented by Niagara Galleries, Melbourne and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

A wide shot of gallery space with multiple vitrines with colourful objects

Angela Brennan: Forms of Life, Potter Museum of Art, installation view. Courtesy of Niagara Galleries, Melbourne and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

A photograph of contemporary black and white ceramic bowls and vases arranged on a plinths against a colourful drawn background featuring yellow and light blue and green

Angela Brennan: Forms of Life, Potter Museum of Art, installation view. Courtesy of Niagara Galleries, Melbourne and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

A photo of four sketches of human figures pinned on the pink wall

Angela Brennan: Forms of Life, Potter Museum of Art, installation view. Courtesy of Niagara Galleries, Melbourne and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

A photograph of ceramic ancient vessels of varying sizes arranged on a plinths against a colourful drawn background of blue, yellow and red lines

Angela Brennan: Forms of Life, Potter Museum of Art, installation view. Courtesy of Niagara Galleries, Melbourne and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

A photograph of a wall completely filled floor to ceiling with handwritten text in light blue, red and orange

Angela Brennan: Forms of Life, Potter Museum of Art, installation view. Courtesy of Niagara Galleries, Melbourne and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

A photograph of two contemporary handmade ceramic vessels with rotund bodies and narrow necks featuring drawn shapes and sculpted figures attached to the vessels

Angela Brennan: Forms of Life, Potter Museum of Art, installation view. Courtesy of Niagara Galleries, Melbourne and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

A photograph of a contemporary handmade ceramic vessels with rotund body painted with black and ground stripes

Angela Brennan: Forms of Life, Potter Museum of Art, installation view. Courtesy of Niagara Galleries, Melbourne and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

A photograph of a simple dress with a repeating graphic pattern hanging from a rod in an arched window

Angela Brennan: Forms of Life, Potter Museum of Art, installation view. Courtesy of Niagara Galleries, Melbourne and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

  1. Banner Image: Angela Brennan: Forms of life, installation view, Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, 2017