Other members included John Reed, Joy Hester, Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd and Albert Tucker.

Perceval held his first solo exhibition at the Melbourne Book Club in 1948 and showed regularly with the Contemporary Art Society.

Moving to England in 1963 Perceval held solo exhibitions in London, and travelled to Europe, before returning to Australia in 1965 to take up the first Australian National University Creative Fellowship.

Suffering from alcoholism, and later in life from schizophrenia, in 1974 Perceval was committed to the psychiatric hospital Larundel, Melbourne, where he remained until 1981.

In 2000 from 19 August to 19 October John Perceval Retrospective Exhibition was held in Galeria Aniela Fine Art Gallery and Sculpture Park.