1987

Arkley staged two solo painting exhibitions, showed several new work-on-paper cacti in Brisbane, and was prominent in a number of significant local group exhibitions during the year. The solo show at Roslyn Oxley9 in September was his first in which the suburban theme – such a key factor in his subsequent career – was clearly to the fore. The Anima Gallery exhibition in Adelaide mostly comprised canvases already shown previously.

In the ‘Ten by Ten’ group show at 200 Gertrude Street, painter Lesley Dumbrell selected Arkley among ten of her peers (also including Elizabeth Gower, John Nixon, Peter Tyndall and Jenny Watson) whose work had been significant ten years earlier, comparing their recent works to guage their development. In some cases, continuity was apparent, but with Arkley (as with Jenny Watson), the change was dramatic.

Juliana Engberg published a major profile in the Autumn issue of Art & Australia (‘Indigenous, indelible Arkley’), providing an insightful survey of his career and critical fortune to date. She stressed the innovative nature of his visual language, and the significance of his suburban subject, predicting that this would soon dominate his work. Other significant publications – see bibliography – included a substantial review of Arkley’s Roslyn Oxley9 show by John McDonald (for further comments, seer exhibition entry).

In April, Arkley married artist Christine Johnson, whom he had met in 1986 (see Preston 2002: 144ff.). He exhibited alongside her in the group show at Ormond College (Nov.-Dec.), and also worked with her on at least two collaborative works (not acknowledged as such until after Arkley’s death): Suburban Window 1987 [aka Suburban Landscape] [Howard Arkley & Christine Johnson] (shown at the Roslyn Oxley9 show in September), and Suburban Landscape 1987 (refer catalogue entries for further details). Other planned collaborative works apparently failed to eventuate (see Carnival 147 for further discussion).