Stephen Wickham

On An Ideology of Schisms

June 5th – 27th, 2026

The work in this exhibition draws on the tradition of the avant guard artists of Ukraine and Russia: roughly 1900-1930s. Their formal inventiveness and historical significance continue to engage my attention. 

The imperatives of Soviet era art being played to an audience and culture so utterly different has a shudder of the absurd. Then perhaps the Eurocentric construct of classical naturalism and multi point perspective have grown beyond the use of the Church?

Non-Objective Art is unpopular and commonplace. The historical complexities and grandeur imbedded in the graphic symbolism of States and Churches are prosecuted as orthodoxy, briefly. Meanings, in art, are malleable and dependent on context which is always in flux. The ever-optimistic hero Candide would love being an artist in Australia today.’

Stephen Wickham, 2026