Michael Chavez
Michael Chavez is an Archibald finalist and has been 'nominated as one of the top 20 artists under 35 in Australia' by an independent panel of curators and arts writers assembled by Art Melbourne 06. He was featured in New Generation, a showcase of emerging artists who are 'doing important work and should be considered seriously by collectors and astute investors.' A former animator at Disney, Warner Bro's and Dreamworks, Mike is now an independent artist working for his own damn self. Chavez’s exploration of his Filipino heritage through the western lens of post post modernism gives his work a unique and powerful impact.His work is both hard hitting and humorous, as evidenced by some of his comments regarding his works.
There’s a Filipino expression, “bahala na” which means “come what may” or “leave it to God”. It’s a fatalistic view, which may account for why Filipinos are generally blasé about life and death, living in the moment with little regard for tomorrow. Add to this, a macho culture obsessed with cockfighting, B-grade action films and 80’s rock and you’ve got the ingredients for new works such as Live Fast Die Young. A previous show GHETTO SUPERSTAR explores the issues of exploitation and the emergence of the third world, notions of beauty, gender, identity, transformation. Oh, and by the way – they're not girls.
Mike's paintings based on the Australian ute explore the themes of racism and parochialism through their use of bold images, slogans and repetition. And in works featuring anthropomorphized animal characters he examines the complexities of the human condition.
Sure, I could go on about how I wanted to explore the “nature of human relationships, courtship rituals, gender politics and sexual dynamics by juxtaposing our conversational intimacies and pillow talk with anthropomorphic animal couplings”. But really, I just thought it would be fun to paint a pair of pandas rooting.
—Michael Chavez
Artworks
