Venture out to Rosanna in the next couple of weeks and you can see something rather rare in the COVID-Normal Melbourne art world: a solo exhibition by a young New York-based international artist. In the unlikely setting of a suburban backyard shed lovingly transformed into a white-walled (but still dirt-floored) gallery space, Guzzler presents a new sculptural installation by Nicolas Ceccaldi. A busy schedule over the last few years has seen his elusive work exhibited at a string of major institutions and commercial galleries across Europe and North America. The Guzzler exhibition consists of a small model fighter jet, painted by the artist in a camouflage pattern of black, white, fluorescent yellow and fluorescent green and displayed in the centre of the gallery on a crisply ironed white tablecloth hung over a rectangular table.
As Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller asked, “Is that all there is?” Well, yes. How might we begin to approach such an austere, even parsimonious, presentation?