ARTIST'S CHOICE

DAWSON, Janet.  Coffee table 1964.  Laminex plastic sheet on composition board with metal legs.

Have you ever wondered how it would feel to select whatever you like from a major art museum, to curate your own exhibition in whichever way you wish?

Brisbane artist Michael Zavros is the latest in the Artist's Choice series of Exhibitions at the Qld Art Gallery to be given this opportunity, and what fun he has had!

Zavros says he has mimicked an interior-decorating aesthetic, where the space created becomes a composition, and the art becomes a decorative device.

De KOONING, Willem, Two trees on Mary Street ... Amen! 1975.

Here, a de Kooning painting, and an ancient Chinese horse by an unknown artist of the Tang dynasty.  

A special treat for Zavros, he was permitted to also choose items from the Qld Museum adjoining the gallery.
Note the historic collections of butterflies, and old-fashioned taxidermy: birds under glass..

Thanakupi, Moocheth, Arone and Golpondon story 1986.

A diverse collection of pots:

The round pot, Left, is by an indigenous female potter from northern Queensland, Thanakupi (1937-2011) of the Thaynakwith people.
This is stoneware, hand-built with slip and oxide decoration on an incised design...

Juxtapositioned with:

SHERMAN, Cindy.  Ancienne Manufacture Royale (Limoges), Manufacturer.  Madame de Pompadour nee Poisson (1721-1764) 1989.

Cindy Sherman, US artist generally known for her extraordinary photography, often portraying herself in various scenarios, commissioned this porcelain series in various colours.  Modelled after a Sevres original, this one in rose colour, silver details, and a transferred photograph of Sherman herself as Madame de Pompadour.

PICCININI, Patricia. Heaven bound, 2002.

I am very fond of the work of Australian artist/sculptor Patricia Piccinini.
She uses white automotive paint on fibreglass for this gleaming sculpture.

Zavros has built up a white themed display, including an old polar bear from the Museum - the days of that type of collecting are long gone...

AI Weiwei, Painted vases 2006.

Chinese artist Ah Weiwei gives new life to ancient pottery with bright acrylics.
As some of these pots are from the Neolithic period, this concept divides the masses.  At first I tended to find the idea objectionable, but I have come to like them, and see them as having found new life in their new form, whereas they would probably otherwise have ended up buried and forgotten.

Emin, Tracey, Always wanting you, 2007.

A final word from that quirky English girl, Tracey Emin -
we can make of that what we will..

Don't miss this Exhibition, it really is quite extraordinary!

Have a good week.

XXXX