Hours of operation

Exhibitions

Casual Works
Howard Arkley 

Installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.

5 May -
28 May 1988

200 Gertrude Street

200 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy

Howard Arkley’s solo show Casual Works was exhibited in 1988 at 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne. The body of work spanned over thirteen years prior to the exhibition. Casual Works focused on Arkley’s creative process, ingestion of culture and digestion into practice.

Exhibition Catalogue

Installation view of Howard Arkley, Casual Works, presented at 200 Gertrude Street, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, Cacti/Succulents, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, Suburban Interior (detail), airbrush on paper, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, Suburban Interior, airbrush on paper, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, Pattern Painting, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, detail of preparatory works, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, Primitive Painting, airbrush on paper, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, Tudor Village, airbrush on paper, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, Zappo, airbrush on paper, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, Paisley, airbrush on paper, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, Tattooed, airbrush on paper, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, Tracings/Liquid, airbrush on paper, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, Suicide, airbrush on paper, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, detail of preparatory works, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Feast of the Compradors is a presentation drawing on two years of practical research into modern West Asian political and economic history. This body of work draws heavily from the work of Franco-Egyptian economist Samir Amin (1931 - 2018) in considering the significance of the region as a node for resource extraction in the development of modern capitalism, and the devastating effect of its integration into the modern global system. Studies for a Failed State (2026) is a series of small-scale models concerned with the idea of architecture as a tool for state propaganda, drawing on various global civic and ministerial forms as well as the works of speculative architects Étienne-Louis Boullée and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. The namesake work of the exhibition, Feast of the Compradors (2026), depicts a vista viewed through an architectural installation. The video work that accompanies these sculptural works compiles excerpts from interviews and presentations by Samir Amin relating to systems of global capital, and the impact of imperialist hegemonic expression on West Asian sovereignty.
Howard Arkley, detail of preparatory works, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, detail of preparatory works, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, detail of preparatory works, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, detail of preparatory works, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, detail of preparatory works, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, detail of preparatory works, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, detail of preparatory works, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, detail of preparatory works, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, detail of preparatory works, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
Howard Arkley, detail of preparatory works, 1988, installation view, Casual Works, 200 Gertrude Street, Naarm Melbourne, 1988, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Gertrude Archive.
  
Publications

A Short Ride in a Fast Machine

2005

The assistance and sponsorship of the Victorian Ministry of the Arts, Vitrex-Camden Pty. Ltd. and the Visual Arts Board of the Australian Council. 

All images courtesy of the Gertrude archive. All images and materials for this record were digitised in 2026 by Cooper Motley and Amelie Blanc.

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