Two Irresistible Exhibitions

Two contemporary art experiences come together in two irresistible exhibitions at GOMA - eX de Medici: Beautiful Wickedness and Michael Zavros: The Favourite, until October 2, 2023.

Visitors can take in the two major retrospectives by the leading Australian artists, presented side by side and via one ticket, which provides entry to both. 

Featuring more than 100 works by the celebrated Canberra artist and tattooist, ‘Beautiful Wickedness’ is the largest exhibition of eX de Medici’s 40-year career.

Visitors will be drawn into the exquisitely dark heart of her practice, which explores the value and fragility of life, global affairs, greed and commerce, and the universal themes of power, conflict, and death.

Exquisitely detailed and technically adept, her often large-scale watercolours seduce the viewer while seeking to expose the shadowy underbelly of consumerism and the long reach of systems of surveillance, authority, and control.

Exhibition highlights include de Medici’s intricate botanical studies and her dazzling large-scale watercolours, as well as her compelling portrait of Midnight Oil Nothing’s as Precious as a Hole in the Ground 2001, and Shotgun Wedding Dress/ Cleave 2015, a bridal gown based on Julie Andrews’s dress from The Sound of Music.

Through these wide-ranging subjects and materials, de Medici aims to seduce her viewers, and to shake them out of complacency. This exhibition also offers opportunities for dialogue with 'Michael Zavros: The Favourite' presented in the adjacent gallery.

A 25-year survey of work by contemporary Queensland artist Michael Zavros, ‘The Favourite’ is the largest state Gallery exhibition of Zavros’s work to date, tracing his artistic trajectory since 1999.

‘The Favourite’ brings together more than 90 works, primarily paintings, but also includes sculpture, video, and photography. It begins with a series of early paintings including Man in a wool suit 1999 and Ferragamo 2000, exquisite miniatures inspired by luxury advertisements in men’s magazines.

The exhibition also includes Zavros’ dramatic equestrian series of paintings, drawings and sculptures which show the power and vulnerability of thoroughbred horses, and his paintings of rare Japanese Onagadori chickens with their impossibly long tails.

Audiences will encounter intricate representations of architecture and stately European interiors such as Love's temple 2006 and Unicorn in the anticamera 2008, along with a trio of large, lavish monochrome interiors that reveal domestic spaces inhabited by ‘trophy’ artworks by three very recognisable and coveted Australian artists – Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Dale Frank, and Bill Henson.

Portraiture is another major focus within the exhibition and Zavros himself is a common subject, whether represented as the Greek mythological character Narcissus or by the bespoke mannequin Dad, who acts as the artist’s double, and features in numerous works, stretching and blurring notions of identity. Depictions of the artist’s three children – such as Phoebe is Dead/McQueen 2010, Madonna and child 2016, and Boy with lemon 2018 – further explore the convergence of art and life.

The exhibition concludes with the large-scale mural Acropolis Now 2023, a huge painterly rendering of the Parthenon in Athens. It will function as a Greek coffee house or kafenio once a month and be activated by members of Brisbane’s Greek community playing backgammon and drinking Greek coffee, inviting exhibition visitors to join them.

Need to know - One ticket gets you entry into both exhibitions. Choose from a timed-entry ticket ($10-$16) or a flexi ticket ($20) where you can visit any session on the date of purchase. Family and Season passes are also available.

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