Peter Poulet with Elizabeth Hogan - SYNERGISM 2026

Peter Poulet, The Trembling, acrylic on polyester, 90 x 95 cm
$4800

Peter Poulet
with Elizabeth Hogan

SYNERGISM 2026

16 May - 6 June

Art Atrium 48 is proud to present SYNERGISM 2026, Peter Poulet’s latest exhibition, featuring a new body of abstract paintings presented alongside a series of ceramics by Elizabeth Hogan. In this exhibition, Poulet approaches abstraction as a way of making sense of a chaotic world, allowing the nonfigurative to become a site for exploration and discovery. Grappling with the absurd, Poulet’s practice often begins with a subconscious gesture — a splash of paint or a calligraphic sweep — intuitively tracing a path through visual disarray in search of signs, events and meaning. Through an interplay between uncontrolled and intentional marks, Poulet creates a nuanced field of perception within his works, inviting viewers to construct their own meanings, interpretations and possibilities. Complementing the exhibition is a series of ceramics by his wife, Elizabeth Hogan, whose works enter into quiet dialogue with Poulet’s paintings, enriching the exhibition’s exploration of materiality, form and the subtle synergies between their respective practices.

Exhibition Opening

Exhibition Opening to be launched by:
Lisa Havilah
CEO of the Museum of Applied Arts & Science (MAAS)

Saturday 16 May 2026
2:00 - 4:00 pm

Artist Statement - Peter Poulet

‘“I make abstract paintings to understand a chaotic world. I find meaning in the nonfigurative as a way to make sense of the absurd.

I rely on chance by starting with an uncontrolled event, often a subconscious gesture.

Beginning with the splashing of paint, or a calligraphic sweep I continue to react and pick a way through to find and mark events or signs and some meaning amongst what could be otherwise be chaos.

The tension between the uncontrolled and the intentional marks invites the viewer to find their own meanings, interpretations and possibilities.”

— Peter Poulet 2026

About the Artist - Peter Poulet

Artist and architect Peter Poulet was born 2 May 1960 in Sydney, NSW, to Russian immigrant parents Eugene and Natalie Poulet. His interest in painting and drawing since childhood led Poulet to study architecture at the University of Sydney between 1979 and 1984, where he gained a Bachelor of Science (Architecture) and a Bachelor of Architecture.

It was during these years that Poulet became interested in sustainability, ultimately leading to his serving on the NSW Royal Australian Institute of Architects Chapter Council’s Sustainability and Education Committees. Remarkably, Poulet’s final thesis at university was a work of paintings, later recommended by senior lecturer of architecture, Marr Grounds, to Frank Watters. In 1986, Watters Gallery in East Sydney hosted Poulet’s first exhibition of works that explored themes of the urban/built environment and its imposition on the natural world.

Peter Poulet’s time in Japan working for Toyo Ito encouraged him to engage in architecture as an art form. Poulet became the 23rd NSW Government Architect in 2012. He has been honoured as Artist in Residence at Bundanon in 1999 and at the New England Regional Art Museum in 2002. He has pieces in the collections of the major law firms Allen Arthur Robinson and Naker and McKenzie, the University of New South Wales, Artbank, The Manly Hydraulics Laboratory, and the Bundanon Trust.

Poulet’s abstract painting uses colour, fluidity of line, and the juxtaposition of forms to create new environments. His work is influenced by nature and natural phenomena – light, air, the feeling of space, enclosure, and human interaction with nature – giving his art an organic sentiment. His body of work has evolved to explore more complex relationships between objects and forms as he brings more elements from the outside world into his pieces. Introduced elements reflect his ideas about the world and include thoughts that were present in his earliest works, thus maintaining continuity of influence and motivation – nature and the expression of his feelings and emotions. This awareness of nature is also crucial to his architecture and his interest in sustainability.

Artist Statement - Elizabeth Hogan

“Defying their heavy nature, my ceramic objects lift and swell, creating a delicate tension. Each vessel seeks its own balance, sometimes quivering on a precarious point, other times leaning languidly. These works are intimate, formed to be held, cradled, and embraced, with a presence that reveals new silhouettes, hidden valleys, and openings as you move around them.

 I begin by laying slabs over assembled composite moulds, allowing the base to initiate a unique, chance-driven proposal. I build the walls using coil-like strips that follow undulating, natural contours. The surfaces are deliberately unrefined, revealing the dappled traces of my fingers or the linear marks of a comb, with thin slip stretched skin-like over some to hold the form together.”

— Elizabeth Hogan 2026

About the Artist - Elizabeth Hogan

In her current practice, Elizabeth Hogan explores the haptic sense and the visceral experience of being embodied. Through sensuous, curved forms, she creates objects that serve as extensions of her own physicality, referencing anatomical markers like the shoulder, hip, and bottom. Whether working at a human-centric scale or in more intimate, hand-held dimensions, she creates a tension that challenges the viewer’s proprioception—the internal sense of where their body ends and the object begins.

“I work with clay not just as a material, but as a physical record of interaction.” Says Hogan. “By working at a scale that relates to the body—from the reach of a limb to the cup of a hand—these ceramics act as surrogate bodies. They invite a haptic engagement where the viewer does not simply observe a shape, but intuitively maps its boundaries against their own.”

Her sculptures appear intentionally fragile, their surfaces stretched tight as if containing a pulse. Through this mirrored vulnerability, she invites the viewer to reconnect with their own physical presence, transforming the ceramic vessel into a site of empathy.

This multifaceted practice is informed by Hogan’s diverse roles as a mother, grandmother, teacher, and writer. Her work is deeply rooted in personal experience and family, often entwining elements of art and politics to create narratives that are at once intimate and sometimes disturbing.

A lifelong interest in ceramics was catalysed in Hobart, eventually leading Hogan to Sydney, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) and Master of Fine Arts (Ceramics) from the National Art School. Her practice has expanded to include drawing and performance art, earning her the Mansfield Ceramics Prize in 2015.

Hogan is represented in several private collections. Her exhibition history includes You are Invited (Watters Gallery, 2016), Have Your Say (Articulate Gallery, 2015), and the St George Bank Postgraduate Exhibition (2014). Her performance work includes  a collaboration with Georgia Saxelby’s Brake for the Blake Prize (Casula Powerhouse, 2016), alongside numerous public events at the National Art School and her solo Masters exhibition in 2017.

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