MIKE PARR
b. 1945, AustraliaInterrogating formal and cultural orthodoxies, the vast and uncompromising practice of Mike Parr assumes multiple forms through a conflation of drawing, printmaking, sculpture and performance. Exploring the limits of his physical and mental capacity, Parr’s highly influential performance practice employs his own body as a means to examine identity and political conventions of the twentieth century. His decades-long _Self Portrait Project_ also draws upon his own subjectivity, unfolding as a cathartic reflection on selfhood and the proliferation of perspective.
Throughout his career Parr has continually questioned the possibilities and critical reception of contemporary art. By subsuming modes of activism into his practice, and working beyond established structures, Parr rigorously examines aesthetic norms and social circumstances to reaffirm his vital role within contemporary Australian culture.
Parr represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1980 and presented the major installation The Ghost Who Talks at the Palazzo Mora in 2015. In 2016, the National Gallery of Australia mounted the museum’s largest survey of a contemporary Australian artist, _Foreign Looking _by Mike Parr.
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