‘Howard Arkley – Recommended Rooms: a series of suburban interiors’, Bellas Gallery, Cnr James & Robertson Streets, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, 25 May-17 June 1993

Frankly reprising Arkley’s Tolarno exhibition of the previous year – in fact, one painting, shown in Brisbane (cat.no.3) as Room Rite, and subsequently dated 1993, had already appeared in the Tolarno show, as Roomrite (1992) – this show extended the theme of the suburban interior, including a new 3-D furniture installation and the intriguing work Homefront Strips (1-5) (1993), offering a series of examples of interior décor, in a premonition of the strategy deployed in the ‘Sampling’ exhibition at Tolarno in 1998.

Arkley’s archive contains a series of slides of the individual works shown at the Bellas exhibition, but no installation shots apart from views of cat.no.8 (see below). The exhibition check-list lists the works shown (and asking prices) as follows:

1.      Crisp and Tailored 1993 ($7,000)

2.      Neapolitan Delight 1993 [kitchen] ($7,000)

3.      Room Rite 1993 ($7,000) = Roomrite 1992 [1993], first shown at Tolarno in 1992

4.      Floriated Room (1993) ($12,000)

5.      Dining in a Glow (1993) ($7,000)

6.      Plain and Fancy 1993 ($7,000)

7.      Homefront Strips (1993) ($5,000)

8.      Recommended Room Tableau (1993) [3/M] ($9,000)