Homeless Among the Gum Trees

13 September — 6 October 2017

When Brisbane released Anthony Lister as a hostage to the legal system for his extraordinary beautification of what was otherwise another country town, he came to Sydney where all the creative DNA and spiritual memes within his imagination found an ideal concrete palette.

Sydney is the cauldron of witchcraft, with a pinch of creative criminology and endless outpourings of identity displacement and countless freaks and geeks without a cause, even the homeless adore Lister for adding to their skyline and ceilings—some fantastic things to look at from the gutter. Lister pours his paint over the places the public poor inhabit, Sydney is an enfant terrible’s playground where crime intercepts with crooked cops as a respected way of life, where he makes the ordinary become extraordinary with just a roller, spray-gun and the gift that Banksy described as “you appear to piss great art in your sleep”.

Lister has uncovered the dark mythology hidden under the Westfieldian plains, from the horned man of the ashes of Luna Park where Martin Sharp roamed for a while, where sniffer dogs nuzzle women’s crotches in search of drugs while the importers dine in mansions sublime, with bankers and merchants on harbor side balconies, their purchased wives laid out ‘like patients etherized upon a table’.

Most of all, Lister is democratic, he scorns hypocrisy and skates with dirty knotted haired street boys with the same panache as he brings to the rich man’s commissioned work.

Sydney is a slut with her legs wide open between the North and South Heads.

Charles Waterstreet
September, 2017

View the trailer for the documentary HAVE YOU SEEN THE LISTERS?- screened last month at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). "From award-winning filmmaker Eddie Martin comes an up-to-the-minute snapshot of the life and creative processes of outspoken ‘visual freedom fighter’ Anthony Lister, Australia’s most renowned street artist." MIFF

  

 

\ Exhibition featured works

Abstract Justice

2017 \ Bronze sculpture \ 13cm(h) x 5cm(w) x 5.5cm(d)

Beauty spelt wrong

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 113x269cm

SOLD

Big Head

2017 \ Bronze sculpture \ 83cm(h) x 30cm(w) x 26cm(d)

Chopper

2017 \ Bronze sculpture \ 23.5cm(h) x 10cm(w) x 7.5cm(d)

SOLD

Christ with Didgeridoo

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 48x76.5cm

SOLD

Cute Buns

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 36.5x39cm

SOLD

Ears too big head too small

2017 \ Bronze sculpture \ 15cm(h) x 5.5cm(w) x 6cm(d)

SOLD

Fashion Parade

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 140.5x256cm

SOLD

Fuck Flowers

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 61x37cm

SOLD

Geurnica Bull

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 37x61cm

SOLD

God Hold the Devil

2017 \ Bronze sculpture \ 25cm(h) x 12cm(w) x 14cm(d)

SOLD

Head Upside Down

2017 \ Bronze sculpture \ 12cm(h) x 4cm(w) x 4.5cm(d)

Horned Man of Luna Park

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 40x61cm

SOLD

How Love Greets You

2017 \ Bronze sculpture \ 33cm(h) x 5cm(w) x 11.5cm(d)

SOLD

Karl

2017 \ Bronze sculpture \ 8cm(h) x 8cm(w) x 7.5cm(d)

Lawman

2017 \ Bronze sculpture \ 9.5cm(h) x 4.5cm(w) x 5cm(d)

SOLD

Little Head

2017 \ Bronze sculpture \ 6cm(h) x 3.5cm(w) x 4cm(d)

Luna Park Fears

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 37.5x69cm

SOLD

Magic Doodle

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 40x61cm

SOLD

Moloch Rape Scene

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 48x76.5cm

New Bondage

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 37x61cm

SOLD

No More Drama

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 62.5x37cm

SOLD

Nude Dancer

2017 \ Bronze sculpture \ 25.5cm(h) x 21cm(w) x 18cm(d)

Ouiji War

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 104x150cm

Pig in Suit

2017 \ Bronze sculpture \ 27cm(h) x 8cm(w) x 8.5cm(d)

Privacy

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 38x70cm

Prized Score

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 41x70cm

Self Portrait with Jacket

2017 \ Bronze sculpture \ 23.5cm(h) x 6cm(w) x 5.5cm(d)

SOLD

Selfie Breaking News

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 38x67cm

Shopping Trio

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 148.5x259cm

SOLD

Stripper Asleep on the Pole

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 152x100cm

SOLD

The Big Win

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 61x37cm

SOLD

The Couple Trap

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 38x67cm

The Mysterious Anxiety

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 149x270cm

SOLD

The Return to Freedom

2017 \ Charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 149x271cm

SOLD

Warrior with Tits and Dick

2017 \ Bronze sculpture \ 42cm(h) x 16cm(w) x 15cm(d)

SOLD

cant wear a Zebra

2017 \ charcoal, spray paint, acrylic and oil stick on canvas \ 48x76cm

\ Other exhibitions

Caroline Zilinsky

MIRROR MIRROR

26 June — 19 July 2025

Floria Tosca

MY LITTORAL ZONE

26 June — 19 July 2025

Jorna Newberry

RETURN TO COUNTRY

28 May — 21 June 2025

Contact Us

to find out more about Homeless Among the Gum Trees.

12 - 14 Meagher Street Chippendale, NSW 2008
Opening Hours
Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm Saturday, 11am - 4pm Easter 2025: The gallery will closed from 18 - 21 April Closed Public Holidays (and Easter Saturday)