At an exclusive launch at the Gallery of Modern Art, this striking self-portrait Bad dad 2013 by Michael Zavros was announced as the focus of the QAGOMA Foundation 2016 Appeal. This is the first time a work by a contemporary Queensland artist had been the sole focus of the Foundation’s Annual appeal.

With the help of supporters, the Gallery is aiming to acquire the critically acclaimed autobiographical painting, a work shortlisted for the 2013 Archibald Prize and included in the Gallery’s 2015 exhibition ‘GOMA Q: Contemporary Queensland Art’. The 2016 Appeal will help the Gallery represent one of Australia’s leading artists with this accomplished and compelling work.

Bad dad brilliantly captures a contemplative and complicated moment in which Zavros has cast himself as a contemporary version of the protagonist from Caravaggio’s Baroque work Narcissus c.1597–1599. Viewers are easily enticed by the languid world of this impressive self-portrait. To strengthen our holdings of work by Zavros, we are appealing to our supporters to help us bring this vivid moment in Australian art into the Collection. Zavros was inspired to create the work having spent time at the Palazzo Barberini in Rome, home of Caravaggio’s Narcissus.

Bad dad is an outstanding example of Zavros’ talents as a figurative painter and astute observer of social conditions. In this reflexive gesture Zavros describes himself in oils as someone who looks deeply into the range of emotional experiences associated with materialism.

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The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Foundation
raises crucial funds to develop the Gallery’s Collection and present major exhibitions and community-based public programs, including regional and children’s programs.