JOHN PERCEVAL

All That We Are Heide Museum of Modern Art 21 March–12 July 2026 Melbourne

Press Release

This exhibition surveys three decades of the remarkable achievements of the maverick Australian artist John Perceval, a central figure in the creative circle associated with John and Sunday Reed at Heide and a significant contributor to the evolution of modernist art in Melbourne.

Perceval was producing works of considerable technical competency and psychological power by the age of nineteen. He went on to experiment across painting, drawing, ceramics and sculpture, and explore an expansive range of subjects, yet remained anchored throughout by a profound engagement with the complexity of the human condition.

All That We Are traces Perceval’s creative development from the late 1930s as he shifted from unsettling portrayals of childhood memories and wartime experiences to exuberant imagery inspired by the Renaissance masters and later gestural, vibrant land and seascapes. Among the examples of his accomplished and influential ceramic practice, the exhibition includes more than twenty of his celebrated angel series from the 1950s and early 60s.

Also Exhibiting at Heide Museum of Modern Art

All Exhibitions

SIMONE SLEE Light Time Heide Museum of Modern Art 28 March–28 June 2026 Melbourne

BADRA AJI Get the boy a dog and call it a day Heide Museum of Modern Art 14 March–16 August 2026 Melbourne

CRICHTON, TUCKER, WHITELEY The Chelsea Hotel Years 1967–69 Heide Museum of Modern Art 28 February–16 August 2026 Melbourne

About the Gallery

Heide Museum of Modern Art, commonly known as Heide, is a public art museum in Bulleen, on the banks of the Birrarung/Yarra River around nine kilometres north-east of central Melbourne, Australia. Established as a museum in 1981, Heide occupies the former home and property of arts patrons John and Sunday Reed, who bought the then-dairy farm in 1934 and transformed it into a hub for Australian modernism. Set within 16 acres of heritage-listed gardens and sculpture park, the museum now presents modern and contemporary art across three main buildings and is recognised as one of Australia’s most important cultural sites. Heide’s intertwined histories of art, architecture, landscape, and progressive social experiment give it a distinctive place within Melbourne’s cultural ecology.

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Address

7 Templestowe Road
Bulleen
Melbourne
Australia

Opening Hours

Tuesday - Sunday: 10am - 5pm

Heide Museum of Modern Art

7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen, Melbourne, Australia

+61 3 9850 1500
http://www.heide.com.au

Opening hours

Tuesday - Sunday: 10am - 5pm

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