Fantastic Forms: Curator Talk with Sophie O'Brien
Stephen Benwell, Red, Stocking and Dancer 2022, earthenware with porcelain slip, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist and LON Gallery. Photo: Tim Gresham.
14 Jun 2025
Stephen Benwell, Red, Stocking and Dancer 2022, earthenware with porcelain slip, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist and LON Gallery. Photo: Tim Gresham.
| Dates | Saturday 14 June |
|---|---|
| Times | 2:00pm - 3:00pm |
| Cost | FREE |
| Booking | Please be sure to book via the link below |
| Age | Recommended for 12 years and over |
Join Sophie O'Brien, co-curator and Bundanon’s Head of Curatorial and Learning, for an afternoon talk exploring the exhibition Fantastic Forms.
Fantastic Forms celebrates the vibrant creative practice of Merric Boyd (1888-1959), an artist who is often referred to as the father of Australian studio pottery. The exhibition presents Boyd’s idiosyncratic approach to artmaking through drawings and ceramics in conversation with work by three contemporary artists – Nabilah Nordin’s sculptural forms, Stephen Benwell’s delicate earthenware figures and energetic stop-motion videos by emerging Bundjalung artist Rubyrose Bancroft.
Fantastic Forms co-curator Sophie O'Brien leads a lively tour through the exhibition, discussing ways these artists’ very different creative approaches connect across the years with Boyd’s dynamic practice and philosophies of art and life.
For more information on parking and how to get to our gallery, head to our VISIT page.
READ MORE - Fantastic Forms
Sophie O'Brien
Sophie O’Brien is a curator, director and writer. She has previously worked in senior curatorial leadership roles at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in Aotearoa New Zealand, and at the Serpentine Galleries and Tate Britain in London, UK.
Sophie has worked on numerous large-scale commissions with artists including Marina Abramović, Ruth Buchanan, Fiona Connor, Jimmie Durham, et al., Gustav Metzger, Richard Hamilton, Susan Norrie, Thomas Schütte, Javier Téllez, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rosemarie Trockel and Adrián Villar Rojas, as well as architects Peter Zumthor, SANAA and Herzog+deMeuron+AiWeiwei. She has previously led the exhibition teams for the Australian Pavilions at the Venice Biennale (2005-2007) and the Biennale of Sydney (On Reason and Emotion, 2003).
In the curatorial teams at Artspace Sydney and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Sophie delivered numerous exhibitions and publications, and curated the visual arts programme for the Perth Festival (1999-2001). She has a MA in Directing Performance from the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne (2018-2019).