Melbourne, 30 May 2023 — 17 Jun 2023

28 Derby Street [PO Box 1183], Collingwood 3066

Mao, Mengele and Martina Navratilova
- Cameron Hayes

‘People love to say “so and so changed world history” as if to say if Gutenberg wasn’t born then we would still be buying handwritten newspapers, or if it wasn’t for Billie Jean King women tennis players would still be playing tennis in wedding dresses. People like the comedy/tragedy that we can solve systematic problems with biographical solutions. We like to think the big systems which dictate our lives like time, other people, attraction, government, the market etc, can be altered by the type of person we are and the way we behave in our lives – our biography.

We choose, or rather we create historical figures who perform the impossibility of pitting their biography against the system. We find comforting those historical figures whose mistakes (death) were to us foreseeable and so to us avoidable.

A story about someone you know is more interesting than about someone you don’t. By using historical figures in a painting there is already a platform of familiarity to start from. Historical figures in art function the same way biblical figures in religious culture do, Greek gods in literature do, and totems in indigenous art do, they can be used as surrogates to criticise contemporary behaviour while offering contemporary people the comfort of plausible deniability. History painting feels like gossip because it has the accessibility of a moral pantomime where no-one feels judged and everyone can judge.’ – Cameron Hayes, 2023

ARTISTS TALK – Saturday 3 June 2pm

Cameron Hayes
Densely layered, monumental paintings reveal recurring themes within Cameron Hayes’ oeuvre drawn from unabashed, uncomfortable …
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In Blog

Cameron Hayes – Artist Profile

Image above: Cameron Hayes  In the South Pole the explorers were so afraid of not having enough food for winter …

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Cameron Hayes’ Paintings Speak of Human Frailty and Insecurity

Image above: Cameron Hayes  She died in the child welfare tribunal, he died in an adult bookshop  2020-21  oil on …

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Cameron Hayes – Blake Prize 2021

Image above: Cameron Hayes  Angry angels help Adam with the first dictionary  2020  oil on canvas  198 x 254 cm …

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Salvatore Zofrea – In Collaboration with 3:33 Art Projects

Image above:  Days of Summer  2008-23  hand-coloured woodcut with lapis lazuli on paper  edition unique  44 x 59 cm “…I was …

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Simon Normand – Commissioned to paint map of Roper River

In the Arnhem Land community of Ngukurr, elder Clarry Rogers is worried plans to allocate water to new gas fracking and …

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Marina Strocchi’s Paintings and Prints at the Melbourne Italian Festa

This beautiful painting from Marina Strocchi‘s current exhibition, The vineyards of Madden’s Lane was one of a selection of the …

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Vicki Varvaressos – currently exhibited at the Art Gallery of New South Wales

Image above: Still Life: West Australian gum blossoms  1985  synthetic polymer paint on hardboard  122.7 x 91.5 cm Vicki Varvaressos, …

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John Wolseley in ‘Essays on Earth’ Exhibition – Bendigo Art Gallery

John Wolseley  The life of inland waters – Durabudboi river  (detail) 2015 – 2018 watercolour, graphite and woodcut on paper …

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Whereabouts: Printmakers Respond – Group Exhibition Curated by Rona Green

Image above: Rona Green  Petal  2023  hand coloured linocut  edition 57   38 x 28 cm Photography by Tim Gresham Printmaker …

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Vale Kevin Mortensen (1939-2023)

Image above: Kevin Mortensen and Stuart Purves at Australian Galleries Melbourne, 2016 All at Australian Galleries are deeply saddened to …

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The Victorian Forest Alliance Art Auction

Image above: Sue Anderson  Swift  2022  multi coloured lithograph  edition 12, 59 x 42cm  unframed The Victorian Forest Alliance recently held …

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Camie Lyons – Trenery Artist Series

Congratulations to Camie Lyons on her latest commission of sculptures and works on paper for the Trenery flagship store in …

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Michelle Hiscock and Jenny Rodgerson – Finalists in the 2023 Portia Geach Memorial Award

Image: Jenny Rodgerson  Self portrait with mudras  2023  oil on linen  165 x 107 cm Congratulations to Michelle Hiscock and …

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