FRED BRAAT

Artist · Image-maker · Performer

Something
is always
becoming.

For eight decades Fred Braat has followed one persistent idea: stay curious, keep making, and let one form lead to the next.

Enter the work ↘
The Butcher Shop, a 1979 sculptural installation by Fred Braat
The Butcher ShopCollection of Wollongong Art Gallery

“As long as I stay curious, I’m good.”

— Fred Braat
Fugue in Stick#, a long branch sculpture with painted glyphs and coloured geometric forms by Fred Braat

Fugue in Stick#

Climate models 2019 number 13 drilling down DaDaTa, a tall wall-mounted construction with timber, painted shapes and suspended elements by Fred Braat
Climate models 2019 #13 drilling down DaDaTa
Harvest Moon, a square painted construction surrounded by a radiating field of twigs by Fred Braat
harvest moon
Butcher shop, a suspended timber installation within a metal frame by Fred Braat
butcher shop
Everything in the right spot, a constructed tabletop sculpture with dark rounded forms and projecting timber elements by Fred Braat
Everything in the right spot ... the eau pear lingers for an advantages placement
Wall-mounted branch sculpture with painted geometric elements by Fred Braat
tricks and sticks
Wall assemblage with blue and red winding forms in a timber frame by Fred Braat
Starry Night IV
No Greek Plz, a painting by Fred Braat
No Greek Plz
Quatrain, a painting by Fred Braat
Quatrain
Hard Rain, a painting by Fred Braat
Hard Rain
Walk Through the Garden, a painting by Fred Braat
Walk Through the Garden
Green Fields, a painting by Fred Braat
Green Fields
Step Into the Garden, a painting by Fred Braat
Step Into the Garden
singing quartet, a glyph drawing by Fred Braat
singing quartet
loaves and fishes, a glyph drawing by Fred Braat
loaves and fishes
Hungry, a glyph drawing by Fred Braat
Hungry
tempting the clouds, a glyph drawing by Fred Braat
tempting the clouds
House of Worms, a glyph drawing by Fred Braat
House of Worms
squaring the circle, a glyph drawing by Fred Braat
squaring the circle

Carrara

Early explorations of three-dimensional digital form, where drawing, machinery and imagined objects enter a space of their own.

Mandala, a circular Carrara digital sculpture composed of bronze, blue and luminous mechanical forms
Mandala
Shelf life, a digital sculpture study with copper forms arranged on a table in Carrara
shelf life
Highwire acts, a digital sculpture study with bronze mechanical forms in a circular interior
highwire acts
Minotaur, a digital sculpture study with a glowing central form in a surreal landscape
Minotaur
Spin

Books to Open

Words as pictures, pictures as language, and small books made to travel.

Art Made Live

Costume, character and constructed spectacle—performance work made for streets, festivals and public space.

The Great Flambollies, Circus Solaris performance group
Bog and Ruthie, two elaborately costumed street performers in a park
Bog and Ruthie
King and Fool, two comic performers in vivid jester costumes in the city
King and Fool
The Emperor’s New Clothes, costumed performers and children taking part in an outdoor pageant
The Emperor’s New Clothes
The Doctor’s Solarus, two patchwork-costumed performers beside a theatrical bicycle
The Doctor’s Solarus
Reggie and Ron, two sculptural black and yellow characters in an outdoor performance
Reggie and Ron
Millennium Bug, a costumed character appearing to climb a stone wall
Millennium Bug
A Lavish Lunch, four fantastically dressed food characters in an outdoor performance
A Lavish Lunch
Bicentenary Parade, a large ensemble performance with Australian map costumes and a theatrical building
Bicentenary Parade

The long view

Artist by decision,
since the age of five.

Born in Holland and based in Australia, Fred Braat decided what his life would be after stepping into his sculptor uncle Ad Braat’s studio.

That early certainty led through sculpture prizes, teaching, experimental books, street performance, community arts and decades of drawing. The materials change. The instinct does not.

Practice
Drawing, sculpture, performance, books
Current
The Glyph Alphabet · Constructed maquettes
Based
New South Wales, Australia

Blog

Uilenspiegelsbag

Notes, fragments, images and works in progress from Fred’s studio.

Open the blog ↗

Biography & CV

A life across forms.

Born 26 December 1945 in the Netherlands. Immigrated to Australia on 11 July 1956.

Education

  • National Art School — Design
  • Assistant sculptor to Tom Bass
  • Diploma of Art, UNSW — Printmaking and Sculpture
  • Performance Art masterclasses with Welfare State
  • Digital Video Update — Macromedia

Teaching

  • Gymea TAFE — Printmaking
  • Wollongong TAFE — Printmaking, Sculpture and Drawing
  • University of Wollongong — Kinetic Sculpture and Etching
  • Goulburn TAFE — Sculpture and Lithography
  • Goulburn TAFE — Computer Graphics
  • Multimedia Training Workshop, UTS Sydney
  • Wollongong TAFE — Computer Skills for Artists

Publications

  • Peace Poems and Others — edition of 40
  • 15 Poems — illustrated edition of 80
  • Several Dreams to Build On — edition of 300
  • “The Effects of Automatic Teat Cup Removal on Milk Production and Mastitis,” The Australian Journal of Dairy Technology, June 1975
  • The Quartz Pebble and the Seed — etchings, edition of 7. ISBN 0 9594726 0 6

Public Collections

  • Wollongong Regional Art Gallery
  • Campbelltown Regional Art Gallery
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • National Library of Australia

Prizes, Awards & Commissions

  • Health Week Poster Prize
  • Highly Commended, Fisher’s Ghost local section
  • Hunters Hill Sculpture Prize; Rockdale Sculpture Prize
  • Hunters Hill Sculpture Prize
  • Hunters Hill Sculpture Prize
  • Fisher’s Ghost Sculpture Award
  • Bicentennial Award — Circus Solaris Project
  • Golden Galah Award, WAAC
  • Rembrandt Medal, WAAC
  • Centenary Parade Commission — Elizabeth, Henry Parkes and the Centenary Rotunda
  • Royal Command performances and the opening of Knowledge Village, Dubai

Group Shows

  • Sculpture Society Members Selection
  • NSW Young Contemporaries Travelling Exhibition
  • Impact, Campbelltown Regional Art Gallery
  • With Janine Hilder and Catherine Woodger, Mt Omei Gallery, Casula
  • Vibrations in Australian Drawing, Macquarie University, Epping
  • Alice’s Birthday Show, Mt Omei Gallery
  • Wedderburn Group Show, Mt Omei Gallery
  • Wedderburn and Bundeena Artists, Clifton School of Arts, Clifton

Performance Works

  • Relic of a Pilgrimage — with Colin Offord, Ronaldo Cameron, Jim Denley and Peter Ready, Wollongong City Gallery
  • Information Booth — solo performance for Miss Suntastic Festival, Wollongong
  • Ghostfisher Project for Campbelltown City Council
  • Mad Morgan’s Maze — with Dick Beckett and Janine Hilder; Sydney Festival, Moomba and Canberra Food and Wine Festival
  • Circus Solaris — founder and artistic director
  • Vacation Programs for Dubai Ministry of Tourism and Culture

Digital Exhibitions

  • Sylvester Studio Gallery, Newtown
  • Faxes from the Kitchen Sink — with Margaret Turner, Campbelltown City Gallery
  • Dessert Dreams — with Margaret Turner, QUT Gallery, Brisbane
  • Skimming — Artery Gallery, Chippendale
  • Impact — Campbelltown City Gallery
  • Project Gallery, Wollongong
  • Survivor Art Exhibitions, Palau and Panama
  • Iterations of Unreal Objects, Mt Omei Gallery
  • Painted Sculptures and Sculptured Paintings, Mt Omei Gallery, Casula
  • The QR Shoe, The Little Yellow Studio, Petersham