she sees wedd

there are two great shows at the wollongong city gallery at the moment, and with the opportunity to make a geeky pun out of it, there was no way i wasn't going to blog about it.

gerry wedd, arcadia
thanks to wollongong city gallery

gerry wedd, one time designer for mambo, has work in amongst the mann-tatlow asian collection, taking the piss out of the pieces, in his show chinese whispers. well, actually he's giving them the cheeky aussie referential treatment that's actually based in a deep love, understanding and respect for the pieces. he researched and specifically worked from the pieces in the wollongong collection and the white and blue ceramic pieces are well-crafted and accurately replicate the traditional white and blue look of the historic asian artworks. Jung dynasty works featuring paddy workers, mountainous landscapes and fiery dragons have been recreated to feature aussies in thongs, steelworks, kangaroos and other local references. my description of wedd's work makes it sound incredibly twee, but the work is actually fantastic.

michael zavros,secret men's business
thanks to gallery shubert website

the other great show in the gallery at the moment is michael zavros' égoiste. i have always loved michael zavros' paintings of masculinity, finesse and excess. the first work i ever saw was his secret men's business in sebastian at hazelhurst - my boss and i stood in front of the work for 5 minutes straight, drooling.

in this show, zavros' exhibits a range of works on lavish excess. the small and exquisite paintings included my favourite from the show: the gorgeous image of the row of suit jackets in the exclusive mens' store. the large drawings included amazing photorealist works of Versailles and the Salvatore Ferragamo shoe bags. The centrepiece of the show was a striking image of a centaur, yves saint laurent le smoking/baywith the human body being that of a gorgeously dressed young man. Unfortunately, i couldn't help but find similarities between that and Peter Churcher's homo-erotic centaurs, so it lost a bit of its lustre.

michael zavros,milano interior/monetti emporium/i do not want what i haven’t got
thanks to www.michaelzavros.com

zavros' work is amazing and although i don't usually go ga-ga over realist works, i go ga-ga over his. something about the crisp masculinity about his works are so attractive! and, like todd mcmillan, he's an artist that actually investigates and represents men and masculinity in an authentic way, actually featuring men. as opposed to the 'masculinity' of, say, manet's olympia.