Melbourne-based artist Bruce Armstrong practised as a professional artist after graduating from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), in 1981.

Although abstraction and post-modern conceptualism was favoured by the teaching staff during Armstrong’s time as a student, he developed a fascination with the animal form. Encouraged by one of his lecturers and introduced to the notions of animism inherent to Egyptian art, Armstrong’s animals became metaphors for expressing different states of mind.

Well known for his large-scale public works such as “Eagle (Bunjil)” (Wurundjeri Way) and “Guardians”, (Grand Hyatt Melbourne), Armstrong’s monumental figurative sculptures such as his birds, beasts and figures have a raw energy which assert a commanding presence and engage directly with the viewer.

In 1999, Armstrong was the subject of a retrospective entitled “Savage Beauty”, an exhibition curated by Dr Ted Got (Senior Curator, International Art, National Gallery of Victoria), comprising Armstrong’s sculptures, prints and bronzes and shown at the Museum of Modern Art at Heide.

His 2016 retrospective at The National Gallery of Victoria ‘An Anthology of Strange Creatures’ was not only a celebration of Bruce’s extensive body of sculptural work, but also a showcase of his lesser-known two-dimensional work.

Bruce Armstrong is represented in state and national collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery.

The Chadstone Art Collection hold two other figurative timber sculptures, by Bruce Armstrong.