I love the idea of simultaneously owning a Dale Frank painting and a Michael Zavros work all in one. Similarly, having a Bill Henson within a Zavros painting really appeals!
As a collector, the idea of ownership and consumption of these works is for me gripping.
An unabashed, unapologetic desire to procure these images and objects of luxury and refinement for our own homes is at once potently decadent!
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| The lioness 2010 oil on canvas |
Michael Zavros is known and celebrated for his meticulous and highly trained skill in the production of his photo realist paintings, drawings and bronze sculptures.
His work encapsulates his fascination with objects of beauty and desire. He celebrates and appropriates a range of iconic subject matter such as imagery of fashion, horses, the hauntingly empty interiors of Versailles, modern interiors, or the Mercedes Benz, for example.
An obsession with the allure and desire for beauty to have and to hold, in all its consumerist glory!
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| Photograph of Interior of home of Dale Frank from Vogue Living May/June 2006 Image used by Michael Zavros for the work below |
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| 1820's Regency leather sofa/Favela Chair/ Champion Dachshund/'Windkiedach Wiggle'/ A Dale Frank 2008 oil on canvas |
It is the longing and desire for one to surround one's self with the symbols of wealth, quality and perfection, which unapologetically give a collective shout to the world
"I've made it!"
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| Milano Interior/MonettiEmporium/I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got 2003 oil on board |
However, there is an unsettling tension lurking in Zavros's work, between the desirability of the material world and the eventual death of perfection. Nothing lasts forever. All that glitters is not necessarily gold!
The embracement of these beautiful and so meticulously executed photo realist images of objects of luxury by Zavros, is so wonderfully aligned with the essence of the Gold Coast, the artist's home town. The search and celebration of more! More beauty, more real estate, more money!
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| Starck/Bawden/Zavros/Nell/Starck 2008 oil on canvas |
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| Echo 2009 oil on canvas |
And yet the European style and rarefied subject matter of Zavros's work is also so curiously out of place within the Gold Coast context. He is simultaneously part of the sophisticated global village and a product of being our very own Gold Coast boy done well!
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| V12 Narcissus 2009 oil on board |
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| Mercedes M Class/Killing Me Softly 2004 oil on board |
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| Winning is Easy 2009 Bronze |
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| Man 2009 oil on canvas |
When I look at these beautiful works by Michael Zavros, I am struck by their awesome beauty and desirability. Although at the same time, I can't help thinking of the sentiment evoked by the iconic truism works from the 1980's of American conceptual artists Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer:
"I Shop therefore I am"
and
"Protect Me from What I Want"
words J Watson-Evans
The Decorator
Michael Zavros is currently showing at the Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane
until 11th December 2010.
All images courtesy of Michael Zavros
*Photograph of Dale Frank's interior Vogue Living May/June 2006
