The Bald Archy Exhibition returns to Melbourne for the first time in 20 years with a series of witty and satirical artworks from Australian artists. A light-hearted spoof of the national major portraiture art prize known as the Archibald Prize, the fun and equally bizarre comic portrait exhibition has finally found a home in the Victoria Hotel on Little Collins St for the 2018 art calendar.
With 45 finalists in this year’s Bald Archy Prize competition, the exhibition features a range of talent with first prize going to multi-award-winning caricaturist James Brennan for his portrait celebrating Australian comedian Anh Do. “Anh Can Do (Apologies To Rockwell)” is a caricature piece that artistically captures the comedian’s three selves, borrowing influence from American Artist Norman Rowell’s iconic ‘Triple Self Portrait’.
The exhibition features complimentary caricatures of famous Australians such as TV journalists Waleed Aly and Lee Lin Chin. Other works include satirical portraits of politicians including Tony Abbott and Pauline Hanson. All pieces share and embrace Australia’s infamous larrikin sense of humour.
The founding creator of the Bald Archy Prize competition, Peter Batey, believes in being able to give artists space where they can have artistic freedom. Conceptualised in 1994, Mr Batey brought about the Bald Archy Prize as a way to challenge the Australian art world that is often exclusive of comic artists and caricaturists.
“If you want to be a young comic artist or caricaturist in this country, this is the only outlet there is for them to have their work shown,” says Mr Batey.
Mr Batey thinks that it is often forgotten that great art can be amusing and actually does have a history of being on the lighter side.“The two greatest artists of the last century, Picasso and Salvador Dali, if their works weren’t done with their tongue in their cheek, nothing was.”
The Bald Archy Exhibition is being held at the Victoria Hotel on Little Collins St, Melbourne, until October 7.
(Feature image: “Anh Can Do (Apologies to Rockwell) by James Brennan” winner of the 2018 Bald Archy Prize. Photo: Rasheeda Wilson – with permission)
