Home will be exhibiting a work by Tony Garifalakis in our Invitational show opening in early July. Pictured is Untitled #14, from the Mob Rule (Family Series), 2014, Enamel on C type print. This is one of six works from the collection of art consultant Kate Smith to feature in the exhibition alongside paintings by Sidney Nolan, Ricky Swallow and UK artist, Justin Mortimer.

“…Tony Garifalakis’ practice over the past two decades has constituted an examination of social relations and the semiotics of power. His work particularly engages the ways in which the meaning of signs, symbols and images might be ascribed, conveyed or transformed through culture, and how conventional notions of hierarchy and status might be undermined or subverted. Garifalakis interrogates social, political, artistic and religious systems of belief – as well as the institutions that uphold them – through a range of strategies that include amplification of the signifiers utilised by those institutions themselves; subversive juxtaposition of image and text; and the deployment of dark, incongruous humour. Previously, Garifalakis has utilised the imagery from various of his own subcultural interests to consider the ways in which such iconography infiltrates popular culture…”

Tony Garifalakis completed a Master of Fine Art (Painting) at RMIT University in 2000. Solo exhibitions include  Information Discharge Systems, Sarah Scout Presents, Melbourne, 2018, Repertoires of Contention (with Joaquin Segura), curated by Ivan Muniz Reed, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne  in 2017, Bloodline, Sarah Scout Presents, Auckland Art Fair, New Zealand in 2016, Mob Rule, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2014; Angels of the bottomless pit, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, 2014; Warlords, Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide, 2014; Affirmations, Daine Singer, Melbourne, 2012; The Misery of Philosophy, Curro Y Poncho, Guadalajara, Mexico and The Philosophy of Misery, Yautepec Gallery, Mexico City, both 2011.

His work has also been presented in a number of major curatorial projects and group exhibitions, including The Shape of Things to Come, Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne 2018, The Sunshine Suite, curated by Jon Campbell, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney 2017, Pleasure and Reality, National Gallery of Victoria, 2015; Neverwhere, Gaia Gallery, Istanbul, 2015: Dark Heart, the Adelaide Biennial of Australian art, 2014; Whisper in my Mask, TarraWarra Biennial, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2014; Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, 2013; Theatre of the world, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, 2012; Things Fall Apart, Artspace, Sydney and Negotiating this world: contemporary Australian art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2012.