Four works exhibited in group show featuring emerging artists at Melbourne gallery Mansour + Hill in LaTrobe Street in Melbourne's CBD. The show ran from 31 July - 11 August 2001. Fortunately no works were sold ... Prospective buyers could have made substantial savings as the Gallery had listed three of the four paintings' prices without including the gallery commission and/or GST! I would have received around half my asking price .... meaning half of the (approx.) $2.80 per hour my paintings sell for....
 
 

2002

Amalgam - duo exhibition of the works of Lee-Anne Raymond and Demetrios Vakras at Melbourne Gallery 4Cats, 9 April to 27 April 2002.

         After all, the exhibition "Dada and Surrealism in Chicago Collections" held in Chicago in 1984-85, exhibited works from the private and public collections of that city. It was a profound demonstration of just how many superb surrealist works were collected in just this one city. 

The book In the Mind's Eye Dada and Surrealism Published by Abberville Press ISBN 0-89659-596-X, accompanied that exhibition. The introduction Chicago: "The City of Surrealism" By Mary Jane Jacob reads:

"Chicago's interest in Dada, and especially Surrealism, is not a new one... Chicago's involvement with Dada and Surrealism is a phenomenon mainly of the 1950s that continues today. It was in the 1950s that saw the beginning of great collection of quality and depth that have had an impact on the role of modern art in the community and the direction that artists here have taken for nearly four decades.  This exciting, formative period of activity coincides with the decline, if not rejection, of Surrealism by the New York art world...To arrive at an understanding of the growth  of the extraordinary holdings in Chicago that constitute  the exhibition...it is enlightening to look from this juncture around 1950 in both directions: to the waning of New York's interest in Surrealism, and to the rise of the Chicago art community."

In January 1999 I finally came on-line after overcoming my Luddite tendencies and purchasing my first computer. Since then more galleries have been approached, both domestically and in the US, via e-mail; regular mail; as well as in person but without success. Any assumption that the US somehow has a pluralistic art market is misplaced. From magazines like the moronic JUXTAPOZ; to the publisher Morpheus; to Arnie Fenner's fantasy kitsch publication, SPECTRUM; to Galleries like Forum, the only criterion considered in gauging what art is to be reviewed or exhibited is its popular/market/$$ appeal.

FORUM is constrained by a conservatism that entails Odd Nerdrum's exquisitely painted but pointless decor is exhibited. Its "evocative feel" is good enough to convince any self-respecting decorator that with Nerdrum we have decor with intellectual/artistic gravitas. However, simple juxtapositions with foreboding skies and still-life-lit multiples of the same figure are not a corollary to a "deeper meaning"; nor does a Rembrandt-like execution add to its profundity.

JUXTAPOZ only showcases art its readership can emulate. If the work is too technically accomplished it might alienate its readership*. We aren't all artists. But if you're a JUXTAPOZ reader then the purpose of that magazine is to help you cultivate your personal delusion that you are. It acts as an affirmation to all those aspiring to grandeur but who lack ability.
* the last edition of JUXTAPOZ to feature an artist of note was the Spring 1998 edition (Volume 5 Number 1) which showcased the work of Judson Huss.

SPECTRUM confuses fantasy kitsch as fantastic art and thus diminishes the credibility of genuine artists... When it comes to a comparison between Fuchs or Giger with Frank Frazetta kitsch, there is no comparison. For Spectrum however they are all practitioners of the Fantastic!

Indeed it is publications like Spectrum which really increase the difficulty for genuine artists to be taken seriously. Once galleries come to associate Fantastic Art as being the kind of art(sic) Spectrum promotes as being "fantastic art" they lump genuine fantastic art with the comic book illustration that Spectrum promotes.

When one is confronted with the misdefinition propounded and popularised by Spectrum it is easy to appreciate why James Cowan, head of Morpheus, refers to "fantastique" art instead of fantastic art.... Publications like Spectrum have commandeered the definition of a genre and diminished the artistic credibility of genuine practitioners.

CONFLUENCE:
It may be a small irony, but one advertiser in Juxtapoz is an Australian "gallery": Outré.

Outrés' statement as it appears on their website:

"Outré Gallery specializes in all sorts of unusual and weird art (originals and prints) - Retro/Pop, Underground/Alternative, Fantastique, Comic, Hot Rod, Dark/Macabre and beyond."

This Gallery in Melbourne's Elizabeth Street, in the city centre (which also goes by the name of "Toon-In"), is run by Martin Macintosh whom I approached about selling/exhibiting my art in 1999. He was interested in some of the digital prints, but explained that the paintings were out of the question. You see, the breasts, (a part of female anatomy) might be disturbing to some of his clients (maybe those bottle-fed as infants?). With prints of Giger's work it is okay - he's famous, but with my work it was a no-go. It's okay to have male chests, they don't have those terrifying breasts.... It doesn't seem to matter that my works have appeared in very public places (refer photos above), without complaint. If you ask me, it is no more than heterophobia....
 

POST USA EXHIBITION

It is quite easy to be mislead by advertising that a gallery is worth visiting or approaching to exhibit works in. I made such a mistake after seeing advertisements for FUSE GALLERY of New York City which appeared in JUXTAPOZ. I emailed McGrane of Fuse to ask if they might be interested in exhibiting my work and after his encouraging response I sent him some material. I have never received a response since. And, despite many emails sent requesting that he return my material, this has not been forthcoming (I had included postage coupons for my material to be returned when I mailed it to Fuse). On my visit to New York City I saw why. Below are photographs of Fuse'Gallery':

... on the 18/6/2003 Fuse came across this page on my website (around seven months after my visit to NYC when the above photos were taken). Bizarrely enough, although photographs do not lie, and even though I did not go to Fuse alone (which means I can corroborate the statement made on this page), and although I have all the copies of my requests for the return of my material, Fuse sent me the following email:

"Subject:
          No Subject
    Date:
          Tue, 17 Jun 2003 14:15:50 EDT
   From:
          FuseGallery@aol.com
      To:
          vakras@connexus.net.au
 

hello I request that you remove those misleading pictures of my gallery from your web page as well as any references
to it. your attack is uncalled for and very unprofessional. youre making an adversary out of me for no reason. here is
your chance to reverse that process"

Is this a New York thing? ...Despite what New York/New Yorkers think, the town is very conservative. The art scene is one that is a mixture of showcasing very safe pop-art culture of the kind Juxtapoz showcase (a consequence of not knowing enough about art) ... or the exhibiting of work by bona fide artists whose reputations have already been established in other countries... (a consequence of the pretentiousness of the art collecting elite, ie Forum).

Another of the New York City disappointments is CFM Gallery. ... In Australia there is a dearth of art books of much interest. However, in the USA, and in New York City in particular, we (my partner & I) spent AUD$1000- on art books which we never knew existed. One of the purchases was at a gallery, CFM. If you go to CFM and see any book on Leonor Fini, DON'T BUY IT there, you'll be ripped off. After buying a book on Leonor Fini at CFM for USD$85- , we saw the identical book sold elsewhere for USD$55- !!

RETURN OF ART TO AUSTRALIA
When the exhibition at Echo finished my works had to return from the USA. Fortunately for Australians they are protected by a vigilant customs and quarantine department whose actions are governed by Australia's self-belief in Australia's innate and central importance in world affairs which they, the frontline troops, are to keep intact. Armed with the knowledge that events of global significance are more likely to happen on Australian soil than anywhere else on this planet their job is to protect Australians. In protecting this country from a world full of villains their vigilance is not tempered by their stupidity or lack of imagination. So it was, that when my purpose-built art crate reached its destination, Australia, the authorities of this country acting with the impunity possessed by a body which can act with complete immunity from the consequence of their actions decided that my crate posed a risk. Somehow, in the nation central to world civilisation, my crate with its paintings was, it seems, no more than a Trojan Horse intended to get in underneath their radar. So in looking for the means by which I was going to to corrupt the Australian mind these authorities decided that there must be something of value concealed in the crate and this of course excluded the paintings. The interior of this crate was slashed (below is one of the photos I have taken). Parts of the polystyrene were gouged out ... looking for heroin? What? The joins of this crate are glued and stapled together. These were pried apart by customs looking for the pestilence I may have intended to bring into the country. Alas, these vigilant defenders of the chastity of a nation alrerady f#=ç@*ked found nothing. So now, as a monument to Australia's vigilance, I have a crate which I can not use again. It is no longer dust/bug proof as anything can now get into it. Its interior is in a condition that if I repaired it by taping up their slashings to use it again to transport paintings it will appear that the crate has been tampered with which will thus elicit investigation again. It's not even good as fire-wood as its exterior is painted yellow and the polystyrene lining will give off toxic vapours. Thanks Australia!

above: cricled, the superb craftmanship of Australian customs. This is only part of the damage by Australian customs.
(refer to notes)