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Greedy Pixiu
25 May, 2021 - 19 June, 2021
William Eicholtz
Greedy Pixiu
25 May – 19 June 2021
hours:
Tuesday – Friday 11am to 5pm,
Saturday 11am to 3pm
admission: Free
Sculpture that invites prosperity into your life after 2020?
Sculpture that invites prosperity into your life after 2020?
As a response to the global pandemic, the ensuing racial stigma against Asian communities, and the losses that people around the world have seen, these ceramic Pixiu sculptures arrive at the gallery inviting prosperity and protection into viewers lives.
Pixiu is a hybrid creature with an insatiable hunger for gold, jewels and money. Playful and mischievous, these mythical chimeras are one of the five auspicious animals of traditional Chinese culture. Pixiu is particularly auspicious for those who have had a bad year.
As 2020 passed its wave of uncertainty through us all, Pixiu came back from Eicholtz’s memories of travels through Asia. Although not as well-known as guardian lions or foo dogs, these playful figures offered new hope and stimulating possibilities. Each Pixiu pair took on lives of their own as layers of contemporary Australian culture began to contrast with the insatiable consuming that we were suddenly denied. Pixiu embodied the joyful folly and excess of a bygone prepandemic era… a world we are quickly returning to.
As anthropomorphic money boxes, these lucky Pixiu gobble up good fortune and wealth for you and your home. All these creatures embrace our lucky multicultural country, embrace its folly and look toward a brighter, richer future…
Supported by the City of Melbourne Arts Grants.
William Eicholtz is a contemporary sculptor, taking figurative art from its traditional lineage then reforming and placing it firmly in current artistic dialogue. Evoking classic themes, his sensual sculptures rejoice in metaphor and the physical, with a particular focus on the male nude. Eicholtz acknowledges, in both theme and technique, the figure’s place in the classical history of art, then appropriates and translates it into a language infused with a humour and theatricality that embraces modern art.
Selected Group Shows 2016 Common Ground, The Serendipitous Happenstance Project, Kochi Muziris Biennale 2016-2017, India 2015 Deakin Small Sculpture Award 2014 Courage and Light – Collingwood Gallery 2014 In Your Dreams – Counighan Gallery, Moreland 2013 City of Hope – Peter Corrigan Retrospective,Storey Hall, RMIT 2012 Art and Friendship at XYZ gallery, 798 Arts area, Beijing, China 2011 Grass, Mud, Flood – Blackall, Queensland 2010 McClelland Outdoor Sculpture Survey 2009 Shelter; On Kindness, RMIT University for Melbourne Festival 2009 2008 Chaos and Revelery – Neo Baroque – Counighan Gallery 2008 Idiosyncrasies – Johnston Gallery, Perth 2007 McClelland Outdoor Sculpture Survey 2005 Helen Lempriere National Sculpture – Prize Winner 2007 McClelland Outdoor Sculpture Survey 2005 Woollahra Small Sculpture Show 2002 Sculpture by the Sea – Bondi Beach 2000 Becton National Sculpture Award – Gasworks Sculpture Park |
Selected Solo Exhibtions Commissions |