10. Michael Zavros

Michael Zavros was born in 1974. He graduated from Queensland College of Art with a Bachelor of Visual Arts in 1996 where he has subsequently worked as a sessional lecturer in painting and printmaking. Since graduating he has taken part in numerous group exhibitions including Primavera 2000 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Sebastian: Contemporary Realist Painting, Quiet Collision: Current Practice/Australian Style, Associazione ViaFarini, Milan, Italy 2003 and New Nature at Govett Brewster Gallery, New Zealand in 2007.

Solo exhibitions include Everything I wanted, for which he was awarded an Arts Queensland Development Grant, at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane in 2003/2004 and Egoiste at Wollongong Regional Gallery in 2007.

Michael Zavros is the recipient of several awards and grants, including the 2002 Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award. In 2004 he was awarded the Primavera Collex Art Award through the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and in 2005 he won the Robert Jacks Drawing Prize through Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria. In 2004, 2005 and 2006 he was a finalist in The Archibald Prize. In 2007 he was awarded the Kedumba Drawing Award and was appointed to the Visual Arts and Craft Board of the Australia Council for the Arts.

In 2001 Michael Zavros was awarded the Australia Council Visual Arts/Craft Fund, Milan Residency and more recently, the VACF Barcelona Residency in 2005. In 2003 he was awarded a Cite International des Arts Residency in Paris through the Power Institute, University of Sydney. In 2004 he was the recipient of a residency at the Gunnery Studios, Sydney, from the NSW Ministry for the Arts.

Forthcoming projects include solo exhibitions at Sophie Gannon Gallery in October 2007 and Gold Coast City Art Gallery in 2008 and a show with Nell at Gertrude St Contemporary Art Spaces in 2008.

His work has been included in the Craftsman House publication Awesome! Australian Art for Contemporary Kids, featuring 50 Australian contemporary artists. His work is held in numerous private and public collections, including Artbank, National Portrait Gallery, Collex, ABN AMRO, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Grafton Regional Art Gallery and TMAG (Tasmanian Museum and Gallery).

See more of Michael Zavros HERE