STOP PRESS: Jesus a Skateboarder?

ART MONTHLY AUSTRALIA Art Notes Issue 225

Congratulations to wife and husband artist-duo Gillie and Marc Schattner whose contemporary blend of tragicomic chic earned them first prize for the Biennale of Chianciano, 13 to 27 September 2009, Tuscany, Italy, for their painting He’ll never be famous but he doesn’t give a damn, he’s a musician, which features a Dalmatian-headed figure playing guitar. This work was chosen above 150-plus pre-selected entries worldwide. The Schattners are not averse to incorporating dog-headed beings in their work. Their life-like silicon and fibreglass sculptural piece, The baby that shouldn’t be, bound for December’s Florence Biennale, portrays an oversized dog-headed naked baby (asking us to consider all the world’s unwanted, neglected, impoverished babies. And controversy lingers with their work, If Jesus was alive today he would be a skateboarder, which features in the inaugural 2009 Blake Prize Director’s Cut, an online exhibition which extends the Prize exhibition, 7 October to 7 November > more