The career retrospective ‘eX de Medici: Beautiful Wickedness’ featuring more than 100 works by the celebrated Canberra artist and tattooist, opens at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art from tomorrow until 2 October 2023.

QAGOMA Director Chris Saines said ‘Beautiful Wickedness’ was the largest exhibition of eX de Medici’s 40-year career. Visitors will be drawn into the exquisitely dark heart of her practice, which explores the value and fragility of life, global affairs, greed and commerce, and the universal themes of power, conflict, and death.

‘An avowed environmentalist and activist, de Medici’s life and career has been dedicated to uncloaking misuses of power and revealing its effects on everyday lives.

‘Exquisitely detailed and technically adept, her often large-scale watercolours seduce the viewer while seeking to expose the shadowy underbelly of consumerism and the long reach of systems of surveillance, authority, and control.

‘Her artworks conceal surreptitious yet razor-sharp barbs among lush arrangements of historical and contemporary emblems of excess,’ Mr Saines said.

Minister for the Arts Leeanne Enoch MP said 'Beautiful Wickedness' is a celebration of the body of work eX de Medici has produced throughout her career and the themes of her work continue to resonate powerfully.

'I congratulate QAGOMA for presenting this engaging and potent exhibition, which shares eX de Medici’s gift of storytelling and social commentary with Queenslanders and visitors to the state.

'The Queensland Government recognises the importance of major cultural events and exhibitions, such as QAGOMA’s 'Beautiful Wickedness', as key drivers in delivering economic growth, and employment creation through cultural tourism.

'New investment announced through the recent State Budget 2023, continues to strengthen our creative economy, with an additional $4.4 million over two years from 2025-26 and ongoing investment of $2.2 million each year from 2027-28 enabling QAGOMA to continue to secure a pipeline of world-class blockbuster exhibitions and events.

'As one of the state’s celebrated cultural institutions, QAGOMA plays an important role in showcasing Queensland arts and cultures to the world as we look to the cultural tourism opportunities offered through the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games,' Minister Enoch said.

Exhibition curator Samantha Littley, Curator of Australian Art, QAGOMA said eX de Medici’s decision to begin working in watercolour, historically a medium associated with antiquated notions of ‘femininity’, was a deliberate strategy to engage her audiences and prompt them to create change.

‘eX uses the watercolour medium as a device to highlight and challenge what she sees as the inequities of conservative politics and gender stereotypes. Her intricate compositions featuring flowers, moths, skulls, and guns are both visually seductive and resolute in their critique of unequal and unethical social and political systems,’ Ms Littley said.

‘Beautiful Wickedness’ follows the artist’s journey from her ephemeral early works, including the oversized photocopy Scene from an Ivory Tower (Pistol) 1985, and the blood swabs sampled from her clients post‑tattoo, The Blood of Others 1991–ongoing, which document her work as a tattooist, to her most recent series of large-scale watercolours in which she fuses moths and weapons to denounce the futility of war and its impact on the planet.

‘These recent artworks hark back to de Medici’s earliest engagement with moths, realised in a series of studies that reflect the artist’s ongoing collaboration with entomologists at the CSIRO’s Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC), Canberra, among them leading evolutionist and Honorary Research Fellow at the CSIRO Dr Marianne Horak AO.

‘Other highlights include de Medici’s sumptuous early watercolours Blue (Bower/Bauer) 1998–2000 Red (Colony) 1999–2000 and The Theory of Everything 2005, which are rich in detail and embody complex social and political ideas.

‘Importantly, de Medici’s watercolours foregrounding the corrosive effects of coercive control and domestic violence will feature alongside related works of decorative art, such as Shotgun Wedding Dress/Cleave 2015, based on the bridal gown that Julie Andrews wore in The Sound of Music, and The Seat of love and Hate 2017–18,' Ms Littley said.

'eX de Medici: Beautiful Wickedness' is accompanied by a significant hardcover catalogue. The publication features essays by exhibition curator Samantha Littley; Dr Ted Gott, Senior Curator, International Art, National Gallery of Victoria; Dr Andrea Bubenik, Senior Lecturer in Art History, The University of Queensland; Dr Jenny McFarlane, Curator of Arts in Health, Canberra Hospital, and curator of the major survey ‘Cold Blooded: eX de Medici’ (Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra, 2013), and an essay co-authored by de Medici and her long-time collaborator Dr Horak AO.

A special children’s project 'The Alien Others’, developed by eX de Medici in partnership with QAGOMA, encourages children to consider the important role that insects play in our world and the need for us to protect their habitats. This free program, which comprises a fascinating display of insects on loan from the Queensland Museum, two large paintings of moths by the artist, and a drawing activity, will be presented in the Gallery’s Children’s Art Centre from 24 June until 2 October 2023.

Up Late returns across two nights during ‘eX de Medici: Beautiful Wickedness’. From 6:00pm until 10:30pm on Friday 18 and Saturday 19 August audiences can enjoy the exhibition, live music, curated DJ sets and culinary delights at pop-up bars. Tickets on sale and line up announced at www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/uplate

For one admission price, audiences can experience ‘eX de Medici: Beautiful Wickedness’ alongside ‘Michael Zavros: The Favourite’, a 25-year survey of more than 90 paintings, sculpture, videos, and photographs by the renowned Queensland artist.

‘eX de Medici: Beautiful Wickedness’ is made possible through the support of Major Partners Shayher Group and Urban Art Projects. A full list of supporters is available online.

For more information or to purchase tickets to please visit: www.qagoma.qld.gov.au


ENDS