Bronwyn Oliver

Bronwyn Oliver

Bronwyn Oliver (1959-2006)
Bronwyn Oliver was a sculptor who is described to have “The rare gift of creating beauty,” Roslyn Oxley. Oliver sculpted natural forms out of metal creating an unusual contradiction as she structures and manipulates the metal intricately to portray natural forms. Her work was structural and embraced the essential elements of her subject matter therefore creating a sculpture that reflected the subject matter yet was a style that was completely her own. An aspect of my body of work concept is that of extracting the essential elements of nature which represent ‘alien’ factors of nature. This will transform still life into and expressionistic style which reflects the idea of nature and the relationship that human’s have with creating an alter reality to escape the wildness of Nature. Bronwyn Oliver’s use of elemental selection has encouraged me to explore ways of representing my subject matter in my own expressionistic style.
“She was not affected by the art world, she was shut away in her own little world," Roslyn Oxley said. "It's pretty much all she did except go for walks …"She'll certainly go down as a very significant artist. She had her own language: beautiful, refined forms with intricate, sometimes aggressive, sometimes soft structures within the forms," By being unaffected by the art world and spending most of her time working on her sculptures or walking for inspiration, Oliver’s individual style was able to develop reflecting both her personality and the elements of Nature.
Oliver represents nature in a highly structural, aesthetic and almost alien way. These elements are highlighted in the work ‘Acorn’.


Acorn is delicately woven and welded out of copper and represents the structural form of an acorn in a stylised way which highlights the otherworldliness of nature. Oliver combines the element of nature with factors of her personality to create a unique representation of natural forms. ‘She had a...