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By: Damien Worst
Date: 13th Dec 06
Medium: Painting
Drink: Dandy shandy
What:
Howard Arkley
Where:
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square, Melbourne
When:
10-5 Tues-Sun
How much:
Full $10, concession $7, or win one of three double passes here, just email your address to win@threethousand.com.au with the subject header NICK CAVE
Contact:
8620 2222
Image by:
Howard Arkley, Australia 1951–1999, Mod style 1992 synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 175.5 x 135.0cm. Private collection, Melbourne. © The Estate of Howard Arkley. Licensed by Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art.
Everything seems to be on such a large scale at this time of year - the crowds, the carols, the trees - that we thought it made sense to preview one of the biggest exhibitions in the city, literally.
Credited with ‘transforming’ our suburban landscape, Howard Arkley’s airbrushed snapshots of suburbia are big enough to give the Guernica a run for its money.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Arkley consistently found hyper-colour wonder in the mundane – the empty streets, the living room furniture and the manicured houses. Equally as inspired by late-80s punk culture, his Primitive mural is still vividly echoed in the streams of fashion and the arts.
Even if all of Arkley’s 200 pieces aren’t your cup of tea, you can’t help but be impressed with the sheer size of the things. Sometimes big really is better.