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SELECTIVE EXHIBITIONS

....this is not intended as an exhaustive listing of exhibitions I have participated in.

The first exhibition in which I was a participant was a joint exhibition at Roen Art Gallery (a small local suburban gallery) with school friend artist Heather Robinson in June 1981. My paintings were only exhibited once more in the eighties, in 1985.

My works were rejected by all the commercial Melbourne galleries I approached in that decade. One gallery at that time advised me that the art in vogue was "neo expressionist pop op art" (whatever that is), which mine clearly ws not. I then exhibited with the Contemporary Art Society of Victoria (CAS) from 1992 to 1996.

From 1995 - 1999 I exhibited with Roar Studios, an artist run gallery. My first solo was at Roar in June 1999. My works were also included in the Roar stand of the 1996 Australian Contemporary Art Fair 5 (the Australian Contemporary Art Fair is now known as the Melbourne Art Fair). In the nineties, I did one better than the previous decade: I was rejected not only by all the commercial galleries I approached in Melbourne, but also all of the commercial galleries approached in Sydney. In Australia if it's not decor, Australiana, or the faux avant garde, it will not sell!

.... when art is defined by the (art) market it is no longer art that is sold, but a commodity intended to pay for the wages, rent, overheads of the venture (gallery) in question. This means that the gallery is not going to exhibit anything that might conflict with the art orthodoxy of the day. When the 'artist' deliberately sets out to create work that caters to market appeal, for the sole purpose it being sold, instead of expressing an idea, they are reduced to the status of artisans, not artists. Regardless of whatever talent these artisans may possess they instead create objects d'art, not art. The creation of such pseudo-art usually entails a considerable degree of self-censorship. It is 'art' that has only come about by researching what buyers want. High art has nothing to do with what buyers want, for the prospective buyer is merely looking for a work of craft that serves merely as an adjunct to their other decor. Art created with the tastes of the prospective buyer reduces the artist to an artisan whose work contributes nothing to the sum total of human endeavour. 

11 - 30 March 1994

Exhibition of paintings with the Contemporary Art Society of Victoria. City Square, Melbourne: 11-30 March 1994
(featuring paintings from 1989 -1993). The city square was demolished shortly afterwards..... not, I am told, because my paintings were exhibited there!

1996

Two of my works in the Roar stand at the ACAF of 1996. A mixup meant that my name did not appear in the list of exhibitors at this show, even though my works were exhibited.

Roar, June 1 - 13 1999

Photograph of the opening of the 1999 exhibition at Roar Studios. The exhibition was entitled "THE SURREAL AND FANTASTIC: the paintings and computer art of DEMETRIOS VAKRAS".

This show was, despite limited sales, a very big affair. Roar Studios was divided into two exhibition spaces. My partner Lee-Anne Raymond was also showing her works in the smaller exhibition space at Roar Studios too. There was a massive turnout for the opening with hardly enough room to move!

Roar Studios was an artist run space in Fitzroy (in Melbourne). A few months prior to the June 1999 exhibition Vali Myers had exhibited her works there (April 1999). A few years later Roar was no more (it was redeveloped for residential use).

17 February - 16 March 2000

Exhibition of paintings and framed digital prints at the CASspace, Collins St. Melbourne: 17 February 2000 - 16 March 2000
(featuring works from 1996 - 1999)


2001

Four paintings exhibited in group show featuring emerging artists at Melbourne gallery Mansour + Hill in LaTrobe Street in Melbourne's CBD. The show ran from 31 July - 11 August 2001. Fortunately no works were sold ... Prospective buyers could have made substantial savings as the Gallery had listed three of the four paintings' prices without including the gallery commission and/or GST! I would have received around half my asking price .... meaning half of the (approx.) $2.80 per hour my paintings sell for....

2002

Amalgam - joint exhibition of the works of Lee-Anne Raymond and Demetrios Vakras at Melbourne Gallery 4Cats, 9 April to 27 April 2002.

October of 2002

Four of my paintings travelled to Chicago, USA, to appear in an exhibition organised by Veronika Kotlajich of Echo Galley (Chicago) for Halloween. My works appeared alongside those of other artists, such as Daniel Ouellette.
exhibition at Echo Gallery Chicago


echo gallery late evening... showing the Chicago skyline


Echo Gallery directors, Derek (left) Veronika (right), with Demetrios and partner Lee-Anne (centre) in front of my works.

exhibition in 2004

Two photomontages were exhibited in a group show at CCP before it closed down.

exhibition in 2009
HUMANIST TRANSHUMANIST 17 June - 5 July:


This exhibition, with Lee-Anne Raymond, was deliberately arranged to coincide with the Dalí exhibition, Liquid Desires, held in Melbourne in 2009. Much money was spent - including on the publication of a catalogue to accompany the works exhibited (it was the most we had ever spent). The exhibition was a disaster. The owner, Robert Cripps, unbeknownst to us, had run an art transportation company, Redleg Museum Services which in 2005 was wound up by order of the Supreme Court of Victoria, a liquidator appointed, the company deregistered (S601AB) and ts assets liquidqated (the trucks were sold), Supreme Court Ordert 8682 of 2001 with a cease date of 22/4/2005. He had converted the space out of which he had run his transportation company into a "gallery".


Above, the gallery interior showing my works and those of Lee-Anne Raymond exhibited in 2009.

Actions by Cripps both during and subsequent to the conclusion of the exhibition coupled with the actions of the Austrlian judiciary culminated in the loss of my studio. As a consequence my last painting was completed in 2010. I have since only drawn or produced dgital works.

[The Cripps incident EXPANDED HERE]

exhibition in 2023


Two framed prints, photomontages, were exhibited in a group show at CCP (which has re-located). Above, the burden - sprectre, 2022

exhibition in 2024

Exhibition titled The Riddle of the Sphinx held at SOL Gallery in Brunswick (inner Melbourne)

5 framed giclee prints were exhibited of my works completed in 2023

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