Seemingly infuriated by the old avant-garde presumption that artworks should criticise and challenge their publics, the art world is currently enjoying a post-critical turn. Pop Life, a show which recently debuted at London’s Tate Modern, celebrates artists who aim to please and entertain, who embrace commercialism and populism, and want their audiences to like them. They include Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Damian Hirst, and Takashi Murakami. Scott Redford vs. Michael Zavros brings this idea home, pitting two local post-critical artists – both born and bred on the Gold Coast – against one another. Scott Redford is a former Queer artist who turned his back on social critique to assert the superior aesthetic of Surfers Paradise. Michael Zavros is a photo-realist painter famed for painting beautiful things beautifully: good shoes, bespoke suits, mansions, baroque interiors, pretty boys, and perfume bottles. Are Zavros and Redford simply affirmative and uncritical, or do their projects offer critical leverage on our desire for criticality? Continue reading SCOTT REDFORD VS. MICHAEL ZAVROS @ Judith Wright Centre June-July 2010 →