Fantastic Forms at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre captures the energy, movement and colour in the expansive creative practice of Merric Boyd (1888-1959).

This vibrant, abundant and joyful exhibition celebrates the endless creativity of the human imagination with over 200 drawings and ceramics from the Bundanon Collection, in dialogue with contemporary works by Rubyrose Bancroft, Stephen Benwell and Nabilah Nordin.

Considered Australia’s first studio potter, Merric Boyd began working with clay in 1910 when the medium was not widely used. Alongside pottery, drawing formed the backbone of his practice from an early age.

Nabilah Nordin is a sculptor whose practice ‘unlearns’ correct methods and techniques to maintain a state of conscious naïveté. Interested in material invention, her installations embrace wonky craftwork, playfully celebrating the visceral and the anthropomorphic.

In his paintings, ceramics and bronzes, Stephen Benwell both references and challenges classical forms, presenting fragments of full statues, suggestive of archaeological finds, alongside busts and statues of the human figure.

Rubyrose Bancroft is a Bundjalung artist who began experimenting with Plasticine claymation at home in 2020, during Covid lockdown. Her work in Fantastic Forms uses humour and escapism whilst exploring biblical and cosmic themes from a First Nations’ perspective.