Peta O'Brien Australia

Lives and works in Melbourne, Australia and London, UK

Peta O’Brien (b. Melbourne) is a multidisciplinary artist whose career spans ceramics, photography, food styling, and large-scale conceptual installations. Based between Sydney and London, she relocated to the UK in 1985 to pursue a career in creative production, working internationally across editorial, advertising, and collaborative art projects. Her award-winning practice has been profiled in The Gourmand, Wallpaper, and the book Visual Feast, and she has lectured widely on the intersections between art, design, and craftsmanship.

O’Brien’s ceramic practice centres on hand-built stoneware vessels, created through coiling, pinching, and slab techniques. Working in a variety of earthy hues, she embraces the physicality and unpredictability of the medium, allowing the process to guide form and finish. Each work bears the evidence of the maker’s hand and the transformative effects of the kiln, drawing on the long history of the vessel as both functional object and cultural artefact.

Her work has been exhibited at institutions and galleries in Australia and the UK, including solo presentations at Nanda\Hobbs, participation in the Melbourne Art Fair, and group exhibitions at Maitland Regional Art Gallery. Alongside her own practice, O’Brien has curated exhibitions, facilitated publications, and collaborated internationally with artists, photographers, and filmmakers. Her works are held in private collections and continue to explore the potential of the handmade in a contemporary context.