Still Life is a solo exhibition by Brisbane-based artist Andrew Arnaoutopoulos, presented at FireWorks Gallery. Born in Greece and working in Australia for over four decades, Arnaoutopoulos has developed a practice that both extends and challenges the legacy of modernism.
Drawing on his experience working in a packaging factory, his work explores the material and conceptual limits of painting. Surfaces reminiscent of rust, brick, signage, and graffiti emerge across his canvases, reflecting an ongoing engagement with industrial textures and urban environments.
Central to this exhibition is the idea of “un-painting”—a process that questions what constitutes a finished artwork. Alongside nine paintings, Arnaoutopoulos presents an installation of studio debris: oversprayed materials that collapse the boundary between artwork and by-product. Here, residue becomes integral, suggesting that meaning may exist as much outside the image as within it.
Familiar still life motifs—such as paint tins and a mannequin—appear blurred and ambiguous, resisting clear interpretation. This uncertainty is echoed across the installation, where process and outcome merge.
The exhibition also includes works from the Samos and Markings series. Samos draws from the weathered blue walls of an abandoned leprosy hospital on the artist’s native Greek island, while Markings uses repetition to explore memory, surface, and place.
