Howard Arkley : Not Just A Suburban Boy Preston, Edwina

Sydney : Duffy &? Snellgrove, 2002. Octavo, illustrated wrappers (very light rubbing to edges), pp. 262, illustrated with 4 pages black and white photographs and 4 pages colour photographs, a mixture of portraits and a few paintings; an unusually fine copy. Loosely enclosed, a Howard Arkley postcard from the NGV. Howard Arkley's neon airbrush paintings of Australian suburban houses and their interiors represented this country at the 1999 Venice Biennale. Arkley's work has been compared to a visual equivalent of the monologues of Barry Humphries. Arkley was also a wild man. This concise account describes the artistic breakthroughs, his relationship with Nick Cave and the Birthday Party, and the heroin which killed him soon after his talent was recognised around the world. It is the fascinating story of a highly gifted artist who took suburbia seriously.