A Pair of Black Tailed Swamp Wallabys, 2014-15, Peter Cooley
Earthenware, 69cm x 40cm x 48cm
Provenance: Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney.
Peter Cooley became known as a painter, before commencing work with clay in the early 2000s. His bold, bright pop culture inspired paintings are held in public collections across Australia. When asked about why he eventually swapped mediums, Cooley refers back to first encountering ceramics as a twelve year old. With the ability to shape and reshape clay, Cooley had the freedom to play and push his works into a third dimension. His ceramics have been nominated for multiple awards including the the award of the Gold Coast 2010 International Ceramic Art Prize (1).
Peter Cooley’s native fauna ceramics embrace the beauty found in natural forms with Rococo asymmetry. The combination of his Australian animals and birds with gold lustres and rich glazes, unites a native subject with the history of ceramic art. Cooley once said that when he makes his sculptures, he imagines them in ornate interiors of historic palaces. Reimagining the flamboyance and emotional intensity of the past eras, Colley’s ceramics inhabit a world of their own (2).