DOWNTOWN 500 ZINE IS SURFING TO THE SOUTHERN COASTS OF SYDNEY AUSTRALIA
THE WHO?
ANTHONY LISTER
AN 36 YEARS OLD PAINTER AND INSTALLATION ARTIST. HE HAS HAD SOLO EXHIBITIONS ACROSS AUSTRALIA, UNITED STATES, EUROPE, AND THE UK. THE LOWBROW.
ANTHONY LISTER IS ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S RENOWNED ARTISTS. LISTER’S WORK PRESENTS US WITH A GRIMY FUSION OF HIGH AND LOWBROW CULTURE WITH INFLUENCES FROM SOME AREAS AND GENRES, INCLUDING STREET ART, EXPRESSIONISM, POP ART, AND CONTEMPORARY YOUTH CULTURE, OFTEN DRAWING FROM TELEVISION AND THE “MISGUIDED ROLE MODELS” THAT RESULT.
IT IS REVELLING IN THE “SPIRITUALITY” AND THE “HERITAGE” OF WESTERN POPULAR CULTURE HE TAKES THIS JOINT LEGACY AND REMOULDS IT INTO SOMETHING EQUALLY ALLURING AND GROTESQUE, A PERFECT REPRESENTATION OF THE SOCIETY HE SEEKS TO DEPICT. TAKING INFLUENCE FROM THE DIRTIER AND ROUGH TECHNIQUES OF “BAD” PAINTING AND MERGING IT WITH THE SPIRIT AND PRACTICES OF GRAFFITI ART, LISTER HAS EMBRACED AN EXPLOSIVE, SCRATCHY,SCRAWLING FORM OF FIGURATIVE ART USING A VARIETY OF MEDIUMS FROM PAINTING, DRAWING, AND INSTALLATION TO FILM AND MUSIC.
DOWNTOWN 500 ZINE SHARES #DT500REDSOFA WITH ANTHONY LISTER WITH YOU, OUR VERY CO-HOSTS; READ ON!
DT 500 ZINE: – We are big fans of your work, man; let’s share some details about your background?
ANTHONY: – I was born in Australia and raised by a single mum. A middle boy of three.
“Comic books, skateboarding, first job at 10.”
DT 500 ZINE:- How did you gig the creativity?
ANTHONY: – Through years of boredom.
“Scratching, which turned into doodling, which turned into sketching.”
DT 500 ZINE: – Tell us a picture of you being drunk?
ANTHONY: – My personality is reserved and articulate, but I have sometimes been known to be contradictory.
“Me drunk – picture a hilarious well, dressed, classy gentleman sitting in the gutter on his hat, laughing.”
DT 500 ZINE: – Anthony, fine art vs lowbrow? What is your opinion about lowbrow legitimation?
ANTHONY: – Class systems and hierarchy which distinguish each ideal from the next aren’t worth trying to define.
“In my mind, there are 2 art worlds, the art world where art is made and the art world where work is seen to have been made. I prefer to exist in the art world where art is made.”
DT 500 ZINE: – What is your state?
ANTHONY: – My mess is my message.
“It takes a lot of balls to cut your own dick off. I’m not trying to change the world; I’m just reacting to a world trying to change me.”
DT 500 ZINE: – Any tips to boost inspiration?
ANTHONY: – First of all, I’d like to mention Lucian Freud and how beautiful a painter he was. Lucian did a lot of paintings, and Lucian inspired me. Secondly, I’d like to suggest Chuck Close and his statement where he says:
“Inspiration is for beginners; the rest of us just get to work'”
DT 500 ZINE: – Your latest work?
ANTHONY: – Ouija boards have always freaked me out, so I decided to make a body of work about having experienced talking with the spirits myself.
DT 500 ZINE: – What does your work focus on?
ANTHONY: – My work focuses on concepts of contemporary philosophy based on observations in my own surroundings and society at large.
“I’m interested and analogies and, more importantly, communicating.”
DT 500 ZINE: – Your ambitions?
ANTHONY: – To echo eternity is obviously every painter’s dream.
“More directly, I would like to be invited to install large-scale bronzes in the public domain.”
DT 500 ZINE: – What are you looking forward to?
ANTHONY: – After my Ouija board show next week I will be doing some public commissions and then traveling to Europe for a residency later this year, a show in London and in France are planned. My website is expanding, I’m moving studio, there a movie being made, and I’m working with holographic. That will keep me busy.
DT 500 ZINE: – Keep it busy, Anthony, babe. Thanx for the mint, and see you around!
ANTHONY LISTER:
“THE FIRST RULE OF PAINTING IS TO TAKE EVERYONE ELSE OUT OF THE EQUATION. I AM THE VIEWER, SO I DON’T UNDERESTIMATE MY VIEWERS. THEY SEE EVERYTHING, AND I JUST HAVE TO ASSUME THAT THEY ARE ME. I CAN’T PAINT FOR ANYONE ELSE. IT’S ALL ABOUT HAVING THE COURAGE TO SAY THIS IS FINISHED AND THEY HAVE TO KNOW THAT I AM THE BOSS OF PAINTING. It’s LIKE BEING A SOLDIER BECAUSE I HAVE TO BE HARD AS FUCK TO FALL IN LOVE WITH THESE THINGS AND LET THEM GO.”
#dt500mag 