Glenn Barkley - Artist, writer, curator, gardener

‘When I was at high school, I read Richard Haese’s landmark Rebels and Precursors and that book has always been really important to me. It has Heide very much at its centre. Since then, I have worked with Heide on different projects as both curator and artist and it’s one of my favourite places in the Australian art community – with amazing shows, great people, fantastic curatorial practice and incredible gardens’.

Glenn Barkley was co-curator with Heide’s Artistic Director Lesley Harding on the exhibitions Ken Whisson: As If (2014), Aleks Danko: My Fellow Aus-tra-aliens (2015–16) and An Idea Needing to be Made: Contemporary Ceramics (2019). He was guest curator and contributing artist for the 2018–19 exhibition Meditation on a Bone: Albert Tucker Beyond the Modern.

Glenn’s highly sought after, intricate ceramics are hand-built and rich in textural quality. In a rare opportunity, he has created 40 joyous, one-off ceramic vessels in celebration of Heide’s 40th birthday. Each of these smaller scale pieces is unique in colour, detail and form.