Title

Nick Mourtzakis | Drawings: ancient sculpture and architecture. Greece 2004 - 2009.

Venues

John Buckley Gallery. (15 July 2009 – 1 August 2009)

Date

(2009)

Summary

Single-artist exhibition. Located: Australia (VIC). Drawings

Country of context

Australia

Abstract

Mourtzakis presents a series of works on paper, which he created during seven pilgrimages to his homeland. Over five years Mourtzakis studiously returned to the ruins of the Necropolis and the museums of Greece to describe the monumental and the beautiful of classical Greece. The resulting images range from spare line driven architectural compositions to soft tonal figurative drawings of marble statues. Well recognised for his sensitive technique and dedication to the art of perceptual drawing, Mourtzakis is one of the few artists to be twice recipient of the Dobell Prize for Drawing. A major retrospective of his work titled Slow Burn was mounted at RMIT in 2005. Notable group exhibitions include This and Other Worlds: Contemporary Australian Drawing, NGV, Melbourne, Drawn Encounters, Wimbledon College of Art, London and Seventh Drawing Biennale, Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra. Mourtzakis is represented in the collections of the AGNSW, the NGV, the National Portrait Gallery and many regional and university collections. He currently lectures in perceptual drawing at Monash University.

An avid admirer of his work; it has been over two decades since John Buckley has exhibited the pictures of Nick Mourtzakis – the last encounter being his very first solo exhibition curated by Buckley at the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane 1976. In this long- awaited homecoming we are pleased to present a thoughtful, sophisticated exhibition of drawings from the studio of this highly accomplished artist. [Gallery media].