Anthony Lister

Anthony Lister was born in 1980, Brisbane, Australia. He attended Queensland College of the Arts in his hometown of Brisbane, along with fellow Australian artist, Ben Frost, graduating in 2001 with a degree in Fine Art.

He recently moved to Brooklyn NYC with his wife and two children, where he had previously been mentored by New Zealand painter Max Gimblett in 2002 before taking up a research residency in Berlin.

Lister’s work draws greatly from popular culture, comics and cartoons. This is evident in much of his work including his exhibition “Super Villains”. His work however is a reflection on misguided youth. He touches on the way once magical cartoon characters of our childhoods become hazy and obscured memories as we age, and the world takes on new realities; wars drug culture and urban life. Lister has described television as a “contemporary mode of meditation” and watching his children has greatly affected his artwork; watching what they watch and becoming aware of what they are exposed to and influenced by each day.

Saturday Morning Prime Time 2 mixed media on canvas, 400cm x 170cm, 2006

Lister believes that such forms of broadcasting produces “misguided role-models” and he focuses much of his art on the underbelly of society, the unfortunate souls, misguided by today’s current climate. He states that he isn’t trying to change the world with his work, but reacting to the world around him and the way it is trying to change him. He is trying to make the obvious more obvious and raise more questions about his subject matter.

Many of Lister’s Experiences come from working in street art, although when recently asked if he still creates street art he replied “Occasionally, if there is a project going on but it’s not something that I proactively work at as part of self-promotion or street fame.” He now spends most of his creative time in his Brooklyn studio where he works mainly at night, always carrying sketchbooks with him during the day.

Lister’s studio work however is still heavily influenced by graffiti art, using spray paints on large expanses of white canvas, with visible cover up’s of mistakes with white emulsion. Lister’s more recent work often consists of two canvases of the same painting, one entitled right, and the other left, both mirror images of each other.

He has exhibited widely in Australia, and more recently in the USA IN Europe. His work has featured in both solo and group exhibitions worldwide, including collaboration work with other artists. Lister has been involved in various street art projects such as at Fred Perry Skate Park in Brisbane. In January 2007, he took part in a Manhattan community project, painting a derelict building, which was featured on the cover of The New York Times art section.

Lister has won many awards including the Metro 5 art award and gives talk in schools and universities on art and his own work. His most recent talk was at Stupid Krap’s show - Kids Today in Sydney.

Stupid Krap (www.stupidkrap.com) is a print company owned and operated by artist Madeleine Boyd, Ben Frost’s partner. Stupid Krap is set up by artists for artists and Lister has a keen involvement. He said in an interview with Juxtapoz magazine, “Another thing I love about it is that they pay attention to who they give their work to. In London, people are just buying and selling shit up, it’s going crazy. So, I like that they’re sensitive to that issue.” reflecting his concerns about the art world at present and its galleries involvement in making money from art without ever really playing a role in the artists practise.