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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

The Gallery’s Acknowledgement of Country, and information on culturally sensitive and restricted content and the use of historic language in the collection can be found here.

Eric

2020
Amos Gebhardt

from the series ‘Small acts of resistance’
archival inkjet pigment print on paper, trifold hinged triptych, edition 2/6 + 2 AP (overall: 94.0 cm x 246.0 cm)

Holding his violin and bow down by his sides, Eric Avery floats barefoot, suspended above a red dirt road bordered by saltbush. Behind him is the graduating blue of a cloudless sky reaching towards a horizon line that splits the composition in two. Created near Lake Mungo in New South Wales, where Ngyiampa Country meets Mutti Mutti Country, Amos Gebhardt’s Eric is a portrait of violinist, vocalist, dancer and composer Eric Avery (also known as Kabi Marrawuy Mumbulla). A Ngiyampa, Yuin, Bandjalang and Gumbangir artist, Avery’s compositions often incorporate song in Ngiyampa, contributing to the survival of the language of his father’s Country.

Eric forms a part of Gebhardt’s portrait series Small acts of resistance, which encompasses a video installation and suite of photographs that disrupt dominant narratives around representation, marginality and queerness. The portrait centres Avery as an artist who liberates the possibilities of the violin through his powerful personal and cultural expression.

At the centre of the image is a road – a Western intrusion on Country – described by Gebhardt as ‘a colonial scar’ that straddles Avery’s Ancestral Lands. Gebhardt sees the elevation of Avery as an act of defiance, dislodging notions of Western order and expectation. In defying the laws of gravity, Avery’s elevated state offers ‘a rebalancing of earth, sky and body’. It is also an act of transcendence, repositioning the art-historical archive of levitating saints that stems from early Christian iconography.

The photographic works from Small acts of resistance are framed in wooden boxes with trifold hinging. This presentation references the frames that might house a family portrait or a religious altarpiece, to ‘position’ what the artist describes as ‘non-conforming pathways as sites of divinity, belonging and reworlding’. Themes of resistance and devotion are at the heart of the photographic series and are meaningfully articulated in Gebhardt's choice of their subjects. ‘It’s important to me that open-ended ideas of love and resistance are celebrated, so that they can form powerful counter-narratives,’ Gebhardt says. ‘Sometimes resistance can be really small and deeply personal – but it matters.’

Purchased with funds provided by Susan Armitage 2024
© Amos Gebhardt

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

Artist and subject

Amos Gebhardt

Eric Avery

Subject professions

Performing arts

Supported by

Susan Armitage (1 portrait supported)

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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency