Greek Love by local artist Andrew Nicholls comprises a series of high camp drawn and photographic works, created in Australia and Italy since 2015, that draw upon the enduring potency of Greek myth.
Greek myths represents some of the oldest and most enduring stories we have, sitting at the core of Western culture for over 3000 years, and spawning tropes that have retained their relevance over millennia. The exhibition particularly draws upon the myth of the muses, comprising almost entirely of imagery of Nicholls' muse, artist David Charles Collins, questioning the power at play between artist and model, and the tension in this 'space between'.
Andrew stated that,
"The personification of artistic inspiration, the muses are a trope that have existed for over 3,000 years, but their role has evolved dramatically over that time; initially denoting a group of powerful female deities with the ability to give and take creative prowess, the term has now come to represent a passive, generally female figure who inspires the artist's innate creativity, rather than instilling them with it. Much of the exhibition works 'camp upon' or reverse this power relationship, portraying the artist as passive, and the muse as powerful, aggressive, distant, or fickle, as originally characterised. These works attempt to question the power at play between myself and David, questioning who dominates whom, or whether I have allowed my desire to infiltrate my work to a self-indulgent degree."
Nicholls is an important Australian artist, writer, and curator whose practice engages with the sentimental, camp, and other historically-marginalised aesthetics, and traces the historical recurrence of particular aesthetic motifs. Whilst primarily drawing-based, his practice also incorporates ceramics, photography, installation, performance, and filmmaking. His artworks can be found in several important Australian collections, including Artbank and the Art Gallery of WA.
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