MIKE PARR’S GOLDEN AGE

Says spiky art-scene enfant terrible Mike Parr: “I began drawing to free the performance record of ‘photodeath’ and to introduce limit states into drawing directly.” His works, particularly his self-portraits, are the charcoal results of performed exercises of chaos: scrawled, repetitive, and yet hinting at a larger order. Now showing at the Anna Schwartz Gallery adjacent to CarriageWorks, The Golden Age seems a sinister title for a collection of works that remain decidedly dark, with titles like: Wound Slash Wound, I’m Dead I’m Dead He Said He Said, Blood in Black. It wouldn’t be Parr without this asceticism and severity. But there is some levity mixed in, with the mangled ‘homage’ Jackson Pollock The Female and the mutinous head of Duck Down. Set in this cavernous space, this is an excellent opportunity to drink in the dark breadth of Parr’s genius. (AB)

Aug 27-Oct 22, Anna Schwartz Gallery, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh, 8580 7002, annaschwartzgallery.com