eX de Medici: Beautiful Wickedness

Overview

Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art started 2023 by musing on air, with floating mirrored spheres, volcanic mounds, and dances between light and darkness to help. When the year comes to an end, it'll turn its attention to fairy tales, complete with twisted woodlands taking over the South Bank venue. In-between, GOMA is shining a spotlight on two Australian artists, Michael Zavros and eX de Medici, in a pair of exhibitions that feature everything from cars to blood swabs.

eX de Medici: Beautiful Wickedness runs from Saturday, June 24–Monday, October 2, and is responsible for GOMA getting bloody. That's thanks to one of the Canberra-based artist and tattooist's early pieces, The Blood of Others, which features samples from eX de Medici's tattoo clients back in the 90s.

In Beautiful Wickedness, the gallery harks back even further — four decades, in fact — to chart eX de Medici's ongoing exploration of life's fragility, death, greed, power, conflict and more. This is the most extensive retrospective to-date on the artist, spanning more than 100 works.

Here, visitors can peer at watercolours; intricate botanical studies; ample works featuring flowers and skulls; large pieces that feature moths and weapons, and explore war's pointlessness; and even a bridal gown that takes its cues from Julie Andrews' dress in The Sound of Music.

Images: installation views of Michael Zavros: The Favourite and eX de Medici: Beautiful Wickedness, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2023. © Michael Zavros and eX de Medici / Photographs: Joe Ruckli © QAGOMA.