Helgoland is excited to launch its 2026 curatorial program with Melbourne/Naarm artist Michael Ciavarella. In his first exhibition with the gallery, Ciavarella presents a suite of pseudo-portrait paintings that traverse a constructed social narrative drawn from political, cultural and media imagery.

Ciavarella’s ‘pursuit of painting through photography’ deconstructs the immediacy of the photograph, positioning the image as a mediated form shaped by distance, translation and dissemination. Through cropping, a constricted colour palette and gestural brushwork, his paintings transform the physiognomic into a broader existential critique of power and representation.

Since graduating from the VCA in 2006, Ciavarella has exhibited regularly across a range of galleries, organisations and artist-run spaces, including Westspace, Sophie Gannon Gallery, Bus Projects and TCB. His work is held in private collections and in the State Library of Victoria.