Howard Arkley (1951–1999) received several major grants that enabled him to travel and study. He came to see no sense in the Australian preoccupation with paintings of the bush, when such a small percentage of the population engages with the bush itself. Instead, over twenty years of experimentation, he developed a distinctively psychedelic and incandescent airbrush style, which he applied to immaculately-finished depictions of suburban homes and interiors. After representing Australia with such works at the 48th Venice Biennale in June 1999, he travelled to London to plan an album cover for Nick Cave, and then to Los Angeles for a sell-out show of his paintings. He married his long-time partner in Las Vegas before returning to Melbourne, where he died a few days later.
Robert Rooney (b. 1937), painter, conceptual artist and photographer, took many photographs of suburban streetscapes, as well as more than seventy pictures of Melbourne visual arts identities in the 1970s and 1980s.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Accession number: 2012.101
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On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
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