LUKE SULLIVAN

Luke Sullivan recently ‘enjoyed’ a media onslaught in response to his controversial entry into the 2007 Blake Prize. His statue of the Virgin Mary wearing a burqa made front page news and the affair was taken up across the globe. PM John Howard commented that it was “gratuitously offensive”, The Daily Telegraph that it was “The most controversial since Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ”, The Canberra Times that “In the tradition of some of the greatest art scandals, Sullivan’s work has challenged, provoked and unsettled everyone who has laid eyes on it” and as far afield as the New York Times Lawrence Van Gelder, reported that Sullivan’s work “Stirs furore in Australia”. The art work was intended not offend but provoke thought. He was commenting on the double standards in the treatment of women by religious dogma, particularly Islam.

His new body of work to be exhibited at Harrison Galleries in Paddington in August, continues his interest in contemporary politics and culture, engaging the viewer with edgy formats that are alluring and sexy and underpinned by a provocative sense of surprise and deadpan humor. His works. which are inspired by Japanese manga have a polyurethane surface, (high gloss) and hues of pink and lilac which create an incongruous “sexiness” to images of war and post modern culture that he depicts.