Michael Zavros - Asimi

Michael Zavros (b.1974), Asimi 2005, oil on canvas, 120 x 200 cm, Lismore Regional Gallery Permanent Collection, Donated through the Federal Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Michael Zavros, 2017. Photo: Parsa Jamalpour.

About the artwork
Michael Zavros employs a photo-realist style in his paintings to evoke beauty and luxury. He paints beautiful things beautifully. He sees his paintings ‘as the culmination of a performance … a baroque folly … nature made better, more pretty.’ He has acknowledged that his art is about his identity and masculinity and that there is always an element of self-portraiture.

Zavros has owned many horses. His first horse was Willy a Shetland pony. Asimi (the name is the Greek word for 'silver') was his first big horse and she was with him for a long time. He reluctantly gave up riding when he decided to attend art school, but they remained present in his work, and he now owns horses again.

About the artist
Michael Zavros is a leading Australian artist who has been exhibited in major museums throughout Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and Europe. He graduated from Queensland College of Art with a Bachelor of Visual Arts in 1996. He won the prestigious inaugural Bulgari Award in 2012 and the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize in 2010. He has been a frequent finalist in the Archibald Prize. His solo exhibition, The Favourite, at QAG/GOMA 2023, is his most recent career accolade. Zavros’s work is held in numerous private and public collections, including National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, University of Queensland Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery,  Griffith University Art Collection, Newcastle Region Art Gallery and Tasmanian Museum and Gallery. 

Conserved by ICS / International Conservation Services 
Conservation notes: Deframed; dry surface cleaned and aqueous cleaned; cracks and unstable media was consolidated; media losses were infilled and inpainted; re-stretched onto new stretcher and re-framed into new frame.

ArtVenture is presented by Lismore City Council’s Destination and Economy Team in collaboration with Lismore Regional Gallery.