John Burge is at present exhibiting with the Pollock Gallery, 270 Church Sreet, Richmond, Victoria, 3121.

The figurative artist has just completed his first retrospective exhibition at the Victorian Artists Society Galleries in East Melbourne. It has been his first Melbourne show in thirty-six years and ranged from 1975 till the present. The nine panel ' Bluebeard's Castle ' - a free adaption of Bela Bartok's 1918 opera - was seen for the first time in it's entirety.

As the artist reflected before the exhibition, " It's all there, of course, the tears, the laughter and the whole mad giddying ride ".

He had previously exhibited in Melbourne in 1972 at the Warehouse Galleries in Richmond and, according to some, provided one of the most memorable and notorious openings of the time.

John then moved to Europe and lived for twelve years in the Catalan village of Ortedo, deep in the Spanish Pyrenees, exhibiting in Barcelona during the dying years of the Franco regime.

He later showed in Amsterdam and Munich, exhibiting with Dali, Vasarely, Magritte and Fontana before a critically acclaimed exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, Alkmaar. Despite forthcoming contracted exhibitions, family circumstances meant a reluctant return to Australia.

Through the mid-eighties and nineties he moved into book illustration and became involved with art education in schools. Over the last three years John has returned to full-time art.