Admired Objects: Acquired Subjects
From Saturday 31 October 2026
To Sunday 31 January 2027
The muse intrigues in wondrous ways—any place, any thing, anyone can urge a direction for work. Admired Objects: Acquired Subjects began with a phone call from Donnybrook to Michigan: painter Susan Ecker calling her dear friend, the American potter JT Abernathy, on his 100th birthday.
Across continents, the two artists have stayed connected through friendship and a shared belief in exchanging knowledge: Abernathy’s mentorship of two generations of potters, and Ecker’s conviction that passing on knowledge is both a gift and a debt repaid. It is not a passive experience. It is the continuing expansion of the history of art.
Ecker has collected Abernathy's work since meeting him in the 1960s. Images of his work have been appearing in her paintings over the years that followed. Abernathy’s pots—real, three-dimensional forms in clay—become, in her work, line and colour within the illusion of painting: an honouring, inspired dynamic.
EXHIBITION LAUNCH EVENT
Saturday, 14 November • Doors open from 5pm
This November, BRAG welcomes four new exhibitions, and everyone is invited to the opening night. Enjoy an evening celebrating Admired Objects: Acquired Subjects, Prestige Bricks, Searching for Belvedere, and Earth Matters: Rocks in Contemporary Art.
Get a first look at all four shows, meet the artists, and enjoy an evening of conversation and connection with local food, drinks and music.
Entry is free; RSVPs are essential. Visit the event page to secure your free tickets.
Susan Ecker
Susan Ecker studied at the University of Michigan and the Rackham School of Graduate Studies before earning a Master of Arts from the University of Maryland. She was an adjunct Professor of Art at Linfield College in Oregon and lectured at ECU in Bunbury from 2011–2020.
Ecker’s work has been shown widely in the US and Australia to significant critical acclaim. In 1997, her painting, Theme: Virgil, received an Honorable Mention from art critic, Arthur C. Danto; Giles Auty, former critic for The Australian, wrote the catalog essay for her 2005 retrospective; arts editor of The Hampton Star wrote a positive, full page review of Players/Places in 2015; Stefano Carboni, former director of AGWA, authored the foreword to Elements Form in 2016; touring exhibition Subject: Studio earned statewide media attention in 2022; and her show at Orangery Gallery, in 2024, became the subject of a lengthy piece in Dispatch Review.
Image: Susan Ecker, Studio: Chair-Vessels/Cream-Blue-Charcoal (detail), 2019, mixed media/oil on canvas, 91.5 x 91.5 cm; JT Abernathy, assorted pots and vessels, glazed in similar colours. Photograph by Sam Beard.