As one of Melbourne's most renowned sculptors, mosaicists and ceramicists, Deborah Halpern is a multi- disciplinary artist whose formidable prowess is anchored by public commissions that pepper Melbourne's built landscape. Perhaps best known for Angel - which, for many, has become an emblem of Melbourne City - a fantastically surreal sculpture that occupied the NGV's south moat for many years and now overlooks the Yarra at Birrarung Marr, Halpern's lyrical and narrative style lends an endearing quality to her sculptures and works on paper, singling them out amongst the cavalcade of contemporary art that leans towards formality. A spontaneous vitality exudes from the whimsical forms she renders across various mediums, a stylistic virtuosity likened to Gaudi, Picasso and Niki de Saint-Phalle, to cultivate an extraordinary body of work marked by a spirited freedom.