Artwork: Foyer Bench 1994

Artist: David Upfill-Brown

Medium: Victorian mountain ash, wax

Dimensions:  72 x 290cm

Acquisition: Commission by Mitchell, Giurgola and Thorpe for Assembly Foyer, 1994

Asset no: OLA001996

About the Work

This piece was conceived as part of the space as a whole, to work with the proportions of the wall on which it is mounted, the configuration of the portraits above it and the proximity of Klaus Maje glass work.

About the Artist

David Upfill-Brown is a highly regarded Australian furniture designer/maker. In 1980/81 he studied furniture making and design at Parnham, John Makepeace’s school, in England. Now based on the south coast of NSW, he has taught at the Sturt School for Wood, NSW; the ANU School of Art, ACT; the Centre for Furniture Craftsmanship, Maine, USA; and the Centre for Fine Woodworking, New Zealand. In 2000 he was appointed the inaugural academic director of the Australian School of Fine Furniture in Tasmania. Upfill-Brown believes that to understand wood one has to work it by hand, but he does employ machinery when appropriate for the design.