Anthony Lister: The Flower Show

‘The first rule of painting is to take everyone else out of the equation. I am the viewer, so I don’t underestimate my viewers. They see everything and I just have to assume that they are me. I can’t paint for anyone else.’ – Anthony Lister

‘The Flower Show’ presents ten works by Anthony Lister – Marilyn Van Gogh Fuck Flowers Painting 1 to 5, and Fuck Flowers Painting 1 to 5 – formed from acrylic, charcoal spray paint, graffiti removal, oil stick and krink ink. The works reference contemporary art history, ‘Van Gogh was a delusional, antisocial sociopath, I can relate to that. Andy Warhol was a psychopath, I can also relate to that…’, says Lister. ‘It is agreed though they both made some very good paintings while they were alive… I have (for the sake of history and conversation) created a series of amalgamation paintings that celebrate the genius of both Van and Andy by unifying the qualities I am most attracted to of each.’

Sketch and Work in Progress by Anthony Lister, 2018

Lister’s street and gallery art continues to display a range of subjects in both abstraction and figurative manner; he is fond of mutating forms and subject matter in his work, through an ongoing theme from mashed up Superheroes to Ballerinas with crocodile heads, flowers and so on. The artist comments, ‘A wise old lady once told me: “In your twenties, you are just meant to find out what is it that you LOVE doing. In your thirties, you are supposed to apply yourself to that which you LOVE to survive. And in your forties, if you haven’t done what you were supposed to do in your twenties and thirties then you’re fucked”.’

Anthony Lister in his Sydney Studio 2017

FireWorks Gallery
22 March to 5 May, 2018
Queensland

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