
Mike Parr: Language & Chaos
National Gallery of Australia 2016
Mike Parr
The Emetics (Primary Vomit): I am Sick of Art [Red, Yellow and Blue] Blue, 1977
performance photograph
120 x 140 cm
Mike Parr
Rules and Displacement Activities Part II, 1975 – 76
performance photograph
Photo: George Goldberg
Mike Parr
Hold your breath for as long as possible / Light a candle. Hold your finger in the flame for as long as possible, 1972
video (still)
3 minutes 28 seconds
Mike Parr
Cathartic Action: Social Gestus No.5 (The ‘Armchop’), 1977
performance photograph
120 x 150 cm
Mike Parr
100 Breaths, 1998
Installation view, Anna Schwartz Gallery
Mike Parr
Bronze liars (minus 1 to minus 16), 1996
16 bronze and beeswax sculptures
Installation view, Anna Schwartz Gallery
Mike Parr
Aluminium from the Mouth, 2001
5 aluminium sculptures each on 2 bases, each with shelf, cd and cd player
Installation view, Anna Schwartz Gallery
Mike Parr
Aluminium from the Mouth, 2001
5 aluminium sculptures each on 2 bases, each with shelf, cd and cd player
Installation view, Anna Schwartz Gallery
Mike Parr
Malewitsch [A Political Arm], 2002
performance
30 hours
Artspace, Sydney, 3 – 4 May 2002
Mike Parr
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi [Democratic Torture], 2003
Performance at Artspace, Sydney, 2 – 3 May 2003
Mike Parr
Wax Wedge, 2004
cast wax on plywood
Installation view, Anna Schwartz Gallery
Mike Parr
The College of Cardinals, 2005
photograph
186.5 x 126 cm
Mike Parr
Cartesian Corpse, 2008
Performance for as long as possible
21 – 22 November 2008
Bond Store, Tasmania
THE TITLED STAGE
Detached & Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
Mike Parr
Major Minor, 2008
performance video
HD video, 16:9, colour, sound
9 minutes 50 seconds
Mike Parr
Jackson Pollock the Female, 2016
Performance at National Gallery of Australia,
11 August 2016
Mike Parr
BDH, 2016
Performance at the launch of the Embassy of Disappearance, Carriageworks, Sydney
Biennale of Sydney 2016
Mike Parr
LEFT FIELD [for Robert Hunter], 2017
Performance at Anna Schwartz Gallery, 6 July 2017
Photo: Zan Wimberley
Mike Parr
LEFT FIELD [for Robert Hunter], 2017
Performance at Anna Schwartz Gallery, 6 July 2017
Photo: Zan Wimberley
Mike Parr
All Day Sucker, 2018
performance, wall drawing
KINDNESS IS SO GANGSTER, Anna Schwartz Gallery
Photo: Zan Wimberley
Mike Parr
All Day Sucker, 2018
Installation view, KINDNESS IS SO GANGSTER, Anna Schwartz Gallery
Photo: Zan Wimberley
Mike Parr
Jericho, 2019
Performance Session: 16 November, 2019, 1am, Carriageworks
Performance 1: Un-face
Performance 2: Red Square
Performance 3: fill a tin can with about a pint of heavy industrial grease. Push several cubes of ice into the grease. Allow the grease to close around your fingers. Wipe your fingers clean on a damp rag. cii from 150 Programmes & Investigations, 1971 – 72
Performance 4: press some glass into bread. xli from 150 Programmes & Investigations, 1971 – 72
Performance 5: crush an orange against a wall. xvii from 150 Programmes & Investigations, 1971 – 72
Photo: Zan Wimberley
A SCHWARTZ CARRIAGEWORKS project
Mike Parr
Jericho, 2019
Performance Session: 16 November, 2019, 1am, Carriageworks
Performance 1: Un-face
Performance 2: Red Square
Performance 3: fill a tin can with about a pint of heavy industrial grease. Push several cubes of ice into the grease. Allow the grease to close around your fingers. Wipe your fingers clean on a damp rag. cii from 150 Programmes & Investigations, 1971 – 72
Performance 4: press some glass into bread. xli from 150 Programmes & Investigations, 1971 – 72
Performance 5: crush an orange against a wall. xvii from 150 Programmes & Investigations, 1971 – 72
Photo: Zan Wimberley
A SCHWARTZ CARRIAGEWORKS project
Mike Parr
Jericho, 2019
Performance Session: 16 November, 2019, 1am, Carriageworks
Performance 1: Un-face
Performance 2: Red Square
Performance 3: fill a tin can with about a pint of heavy industrial grease. Push several cubes of ice into the grease. Allow the grease to close around your fingers. Wipe your fingers clean on a damp rag. cii from 150 Programmes & Investigations, 1971 – 72
Performance 4: press some glass into bread. xli from 150 Programmes & Investigations, 1971 – 72
Performance 5: crush an orange against a wall. xvii from 150 Programmes & Investigations, 1971 – 72
Photo: Zan Wimberley
A SCHWARTZ CARRIAGEWORKS project
Mike Parr
Towards a Black Square, 2019
Commissioned by Detached Cultural Organisation
Presented by Detached in association with Dark Mofo
Photo: Jesse Hunniford
Mike Parr
Towards a Black Square, 2019
Commissioned by Detached Cultural Organisation
Presented by Detached in association with Dark Mofo
Photo: Jesse Hunniford
Mike Parr
Reading for the End of Time, 2020
performance still
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Photo: Nicholas Muecke
Mike Parr
Self Portrait in Mother’s Glassware, 1981
C‑type print mounted on dibond
190 x 127 cm
Mike Parr
S.O.T Fist, 1986
panel 1: girault pastel and charcoal on canvas; panel 2: acrylic, pastel & charcoal on canvas
2 panels, each 179 x 241.5 cm
Mike Parr
Twelve Untitled Self-Portraits (Set 2), 1990
drypoint, printed in black ink, from one copper plate
107 x 78 cm (each)
Mike Parr
Sun is Setting, 1995
relief and monoprint on paper
unique state
172 x 240 cm
Mike Parr
(Par)thenogenesis, 1996
woodcuts, printed in dark blue ink and solvent wash, from three plywood blocks; hand-drawn additions in brish and black drawing ink and solvent wash; additions printed intaglio, in red ink with solvent wash, from the same plywood block sheet
200.3 x 308.8 cm (overall)
Mike Parr
The Rest of Time (Yellow), 1997
relief and monoprint on paper
unique state
241 x 361 cm
Mike Parr
Mothers Ink, 2000
relief and monoprint on paper
unique state
121 x 439 cm
Mike Parr
ÆTHER / AWE, 2000 – 2002
screen print and jet spray on Arche 300 gsm paper bonded to canvas
304 x 1010 cm
Mike Parr
Malevich Mirror, 2001
relief and monoprint on paper and canvas
unique state
203 x 173 cm
Mike Parr
Baby in the Mirror, 2001-02
unique state, relief and monoprint on Arches 88 350 gsm paper onto canvas
244 x 243 (sheet one), 150 x 122 cm (sheet two)
Mike Parr
All Day Sucker, 2002
relief and monoprint on paper
unique state
149 x 210 cm
Mike Parr
Burning of the Books, 2003
relief and monoprint on paper
unique state
137 x 312 cm
Mike Parr
Re-Allocation of a Head, 2003
relief and monoprint on paper on canvas
unique state
244 x 354 cm
Mike Parr
Bob Nemesis Parr, 2004
etching on paper, bonded to canvas
143.5 x 98.5 cm
Mike Parr
Parenthetical, 2007
etching on paper
159 x 240 cm
Mike Parr
No title (unidentified), 2008
etching on paper
107 x 393 cm
Mike Parr
Screwed Loose/Goulash Nerves, 2008
relief and monoprint on paper on canvas
unique state
245 x 238 cm
Mike Parr
Coconut in the Head, 2009
relief and monoprint on paper on canvas
unique state
168.5 x 201 cm
Mike Parr
Erosions of the Infinite (Gutting a Fish), 2013
etching on paper, bonded to canvas
137.5 x 104.5 cm
Mike Parr
Lapsarian (Head Ripped Off), 2014
relief and monoprint on paper on canvas
unique state
147 x 190 cm
Mike Parr
Me-Am, 2014
relief and monoprint on Arches 88 350 gsm paper on canvas
unique state
470 x 215 cm
Mike Parr
Grease Trap, 2015
relief and monoprint on Arches 88 350 gsm paper
unique state
123 x 158 cm
Mike Parr
Foreign Looking, 2013 – 2015
etching, relief, shellac onto rice paper bonded to rag paper with acrylic gloss
unique state
320 x 520 cm
installation view, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Carriageworks
Mike Parr
The Atomic Grid (Inferno at the Self Portrait), 2015
relief and monoprint on paper on canvas
unique state
239 x 356 cm
Photo: Zan Wimberley
Mike Parr
Double-Sided Drawing Boards, 2014 – 2016
15 drawing boards in mixed media
60.1 x 84.6 cm (each); 185 x 432.5 cm (overall)
Photo: Zan Wimberley
Mike Parr
Double-Sided Drawing Boards, 2014 – 2016
15 drawing boards in mixed media
60.1 x 84.6 cm (each); 185 x 432.5 cm (overall)
Photo: Zan Wimberley
Mike Parr
Idiot Stick (Messages from the Gods), 2011
drypoint with angle-grinder and
carborundum, printed in black ink with plate-tone,
from copper plates
unique state
12 sheets, 107 x 78 cm (each)
Produced with John Loane at Viridian Press
Photo: Zan Wimberley
Mike Parr
Unconscious Filled with Wheelchairs, 2011 – 14
Drypoint, drypoint with angle-grinder and
carborundum, printed in black ink with plate-tone,
from copper plates; over-painted with gloss black
synthetic polymer paint
unique state
12 sheets, 107 x 78 cm (each)
Produced with John Loane at Viridian Press
Photo: Zan Wimberley
Born Sydney, Australia 1945
Lives and works in Sydney
Interrogating formal and cultural orthodoxies, the vast and uncompromising practice of Mike Parr assumes multiple forms through a conflation of drawing, printmaking, sculpture and performance. Exploring the limits of his physical and mental capacity, Parr’s highly influential performance practice employs his own body as a means to examine identity and political conventions of the twentieth century. His decades-long ‘Self Portrait Project’ also draws upon his own subjectivity, unfolding as a cathartic reflection on selfhood and the proliferation of perspective.
Throughout his career Parr has continually questioned the possibilities and critical reception of contemporary art. By subsuming modes of activism into his practice, and working beyond established structures, Parr rigorously examines aesthetic norms and social circumstances to reaffirm his vital role within contemporary Australian culture.
Parr represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1980 and presented the major installation The Ghost Who Talks at the Palazzo Mora in 2015. In 2016, the National Gallery of Australia mounted the museum’s largest survey of a contemporary Australian artist, Foreign Looking by Mike Parr.
Selected exhibitions include The Eternal Opening, Carriageworks, Sydney (2019); Underneath the Bitumen the Artist, 72 hour durational performance, Dark MOFO, Hobart, Tasmania (2018), Give the People what they Want / Ideal Unions / Nazi Milk, Campbelltown Arts Centre, New South Wales (2016); Foreign Looking, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2016); Asylum, DARK MOFO, Hobart (2016); The Marked Self: Between Annihilation & Masquerade, Neue Gallery / Univarsalmuseum-Joanneum, Graz, Austria (2015); The Ghost Who Talks, 55th Biennale di Venezia, Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy (2015); Damage Control: Body Art & Destruction 1968 – 1972, BRUSEUM, Neue Gallery, Graz, Austria (2014); Mix Tape 1980s: Appropriation, Subculture, Critical Style, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2013); Mike Parr: Edelweiß, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2012); MIRROR/ARSE in Revolutions – Forms That Turn, 16th Biennale of Sydney, Cockatoo Island (2008); Volte Face: Mike Parr Prints & Preprints 1970 – 2005, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2006).
Public collections include the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Parliament House, Canberra; Monash University, Melbourne; and Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
Mike Parr
2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres
28th February – 16th August 2020
Art Gallery of South Australia
Mike Parr
KINDNESS IS SO GANGSTER
6th October – 21st December 2018
Anna Schwartz Gallery
Mike Parr
LEFT FIELD
7th July – 19th August 2017
Anna Schwartz Gallery
Mike Parr
Foreign Looking
12th August – 6th November 2016
National Gallery of Australia
Mike Parr
Dark Cave
20th November – 19th December 2015
Anna Schwartz Gallery
Mike Parr
Deep North
27th June – 29th August 2015
Anna Schwartz Gallery Carriageworks
Mike Parr
Easter Island
16th November – 21st December 2013
Anna Schwartz Gallery Carriageworks
Benjamin Armstrong, Stephen Bram, Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, Angela de la Cruz, Mikala Dwyer, Clement Meadmore, Mike Parr
In abstraction, the body
28th April – 16th June 2012
Anna Schwartz Gallery Carriageworks
Mike Parr
The Golden Age
27th August – 22nd October 2011
Anna Schwartz Gallery Carriageworks
Mike Parr
The Hallelujah Chorus
24th June – 24th July 2010
Anna Schwartz Gallery
Tom Nicholson, Jenny Watson, Mutlu Çerkez, Peter Tyndall, Marco Fusinato, Ian Whittlesea, Mike Parr, Emily Floyd, Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, Rose Nolan, Grant Stevens
WORD
4th July – 8th August 2009
Anna Schwartz Gallery Carriageworks
Mike Parr
MILK
17th June – 16th August 2008
Anna Schwartz Gallery Carriageworks
Mike Parr
SALTO MORTALE: THE NOTHING SELF PORTRAITS
30th March – 5th May 2007
Anna Schwartz Gallery
Mike Parr
BLAMELESS
1st – 26th August 2006
Anna Schwartz Gallery
Mike Parr
THE UNDERWORLD
1st June – 2nd July 2005
Anna Schwartz Gallery
Mike Parr
AETHER/AWE
1st February – 1st March 2003
Anna Schwartz Gallery
Mike Parr
ALUMINUM FROM THE MOUTH
24th August – 29th September 2001
Anna Schwartz Gallery
Mike Parr
Refusal of Face, 2015
drypoint, carborundum on 350gsm Hahnemuhle bonded to canvas
212 x 316 cm (8 sheets)
Mike Parr
Bridging Course, 2014
drypoint, carborundum, etching ink on 350gsm Hahnemuhle paper bonded to canvas with acrylic gloss
215 x 237 cm
Mike Parr
Alternative Abrahams, 2014
drypoint, anglegrinder, liftground aquatint from multiple copper plates, jig-sawn plyblock printed in relief, surface roll-up in pigmented acrylic medium, printed on Mulberry paper bonded to rag paper bonded to 3 sheets of canvas with acrylic gloss
248 x 385 cm
Mike Parr
Bigness of a Head, 2011
acrylic, pastel, charcoal pencil on 425gsm Cold Pressed Saunders Waterford Watercolour Paper
153 x 235 cm
Mike Parr
Blood in Black, 2011
acrylic mixed with pastel, charcoal, charcoal pencil on 425gsm Cold Pressed Saunders Waterford Watercolour Paper
153 x 235 cm
Mike Parr
Duck Down, 2011
charcoal pencil, watercolour, pastel on 425gsm Cold Pressed Saunders Waterford Watercolour Paper
153 x 235 cm
Mike Parr
Dumbfounded, 2011
charcoal pencil, acrylic, pastel on 425gsm Cold Pressed Saunders Waterford Watercolour Paper
153 x 235 cm
Mike Parr
High Talians, 2011
acrylic, pastel, ink, watercolour on 425gsm Cold Pressed Saunders Waterford Watercolour Paper
153 x 235 cm
Mike Parr
Wound Slash Wound, 2011
pastel, watercolour, ink, charcoal pencil on 425gsm Cold Pressed Saunders Waterford watercolour paper
153 x 229.5 cm
Mike Parr
Blutwurst, 2011
ink mixed with acrylic, acrylic, pastel, charcoal on 425gsm Cold Pressed Saunders Waterford Watercolour Paper
153 x 230 cm
Mike Parr
Coconut in the Head, 2009
relief and monoprint on paper on canvas
unique state
168.5 x 201 cm
Mike Parr
In the Nursery, 2007
colour, acrylic, Giralt pastel, ink, charcoal on two canvas panels
238 x 180 cm each
Mike Parr
God’s Beard Comes Off, 2007
colour, Giralt pastel, charcoal, ink on Stonehenge paper
127 x 259.5 cm
Mike Parr
Malevich Mirror, 2001
relief and monoprint on paper and canvas
unique state
203 x 173 cm
Mike Parr
Shallow Grave IV, 2000
liftground aquatint over etching on Velin Arches 400 gsm paper
219 x 390 cm
Mike Parr
Liver Complaints D, 1994
pastel and charcoal on paper
138 x 265 cm
Mike Parr
Mount of Olives, 1987
Giralt pastel, charcoal, ink on paper
137 x 209 cm
National Gallery of Australia 2016
Verlag fur Moderne Kunst 2012
National Art School 2012
Schwartz City 2010
Detached Cultural Organisation and Tasmanian Art Gallery, Hobart 2009
Schwartz City 2008
University Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane 2003
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