Spotlight On: Bronwyn Oliver

“Oliver (1959-2006) was one of the most significant Australian sculptors of recent decades.

Emerging in the early 1980s when many artists were turning to installation, video and other ephemeral art forms, Oliver resolutely pursued making complex and substantial works in a variety of materials, eventually exclusively in metal. Studying in the UK and working in Europe, Oliver came to artistic maturity at the time of an international resurgence of sculpture; having attained a Masters degree at Chelsea School of Art in 1982-83, she witnessed the nascent years of the ‘New British Sculpture’.

She developed an original, distinctive and enduring vocabulary that expressed her fascination with the inner life and language of form, and she tenaciously followed the beguiling demands of her chosen materials.

‘My work is about structure and order. It is a pursuit of a kind of logic: a formal, sculptural logic and poetic logic. It is a conceptual and physical process of building and taking away at the same time. I set out to strip the ideas and associations down to (physically and metaphorically) just the bones, exposing the life still held inside.’”

Biographer Hannah Fink estimated that Oliver produced 290 works over a career of 22 years.

Text taken from the Tarrawarra Museum of Art website. @tarrawarrama held a major exhibition of Oliver’s work in late 2016. You can read more about Oliver on their website and also watch two short films produced by the Gallery, click here.

Image credits: top image: Bronwyn Oliver, ‘Two Rings’ 2006, copper, 200 x 260 x 260cm. Private collection. Copyright Estate of Bronwyn Oliver. Courtesy Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

Bottom image: Bronwyn Oliver, ‘Palm’ 1999, Royal Botanical Garden Sydney. Copyright Estate of Bronwyn Oliver. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.