Mike Gray, 'Art Party - Study #12'
64 x 90 cm
Archival Inkjet Print
Edition 1/7
$900
 
This image is part of a self-portrait series titled, 'Self-Confessed' where I aim to satirically critique and reflect upon a range of themes derived from my own experience: the social conditioning of social media; artistic ambition; hypocrisy and woke-cloaking; attempts to mask existential anxiety behind materialism and hipness; the brave face of insecurity; the way we increasingly perform an image of ourselves rather than simply be. This image in particular references aspects of the fine-art sector in relation to these existential questions. 
 
 
Mike Gray is an Australian artist who has exhibited nationally and internationally since 2003. Through predominately photographic and interdisciplinary lens-based works he examines dominant Western narratives that specifically intersect both Australian and personal concerns. Some of the themes explored include applied machismo, uncanny suburbia, preconscious vision, the nature–culture divide, and the experience of the partially naturalised migrant.  
 
Primarily through experimentation he produces bodies of work whereby the technique and aesthetic produced intersect the concepts explored. In photographic terms this experimentation is informed by devolved photographic analogue processes through to high-end digital technology. Subsequently his work aims to form alternate narratives and construct new insights into aspects of post-colonialism, visual phenomena, identity and modernist histories.