The 365 Project: Michael Petry
Exhibition
The 365 Project: Michael Petry – The Civil War Project
On Saturday, May 2, 2026 @ 12:30, the Vorres Museum presents Michael Petry as part of “The 365 Project.”
Civil War Painting Number 17 (CWP#17)
Michael Petry’s monumental work (2 meters high by 10 meters long) is the result of a three-week residency at the Vorres Museum in Athens.
The work continues his artistic investigation of the current American Government’s attempt to provoke a hot civil war, through the occupation of cities, by troops and armed masked men who demand to see citizens papers, hauntingly similar to Berlin, 1939. Petry’s work clearly references Picasso’s large anti war painting Guernica in scale (nearly 8 meters long) as well as Greece’s own civil wars and military occupation.
CWP#17 sits between a painting and installation as it has been made for the space of the 365 Project.
Petry has added three colors to its palette that directly reflect Greece; the ochre earth, the terracotta roof tiles and the blue Aegean sky.
Petry’s work is also a queer dialogue with Andy Warhol’s large camouflage paintings made shortly before his death. Petry has chosen to physically paint his marks as opposed to Warhol’s use of silk screen, and CWP#17 thus also enters a discussion with other large scale paintings like Monet’s Water Lillies.
Petry is well known for his multi layered approach to making, be it in his sculptures, paintings or installations, and the new work is certainly large enough to carry this heavy conceptual load.
The exhibition runs from May 2 to June 30, 2026.
Opening: Saturday, May 2, 2026 @ 12:30.
Information
The 365 Project: Michael Petry – The Civil War Project
Dates: Saturday, May 2, 2026 – Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Opening hours: Saturday & Sunday 10:00-14:00
The program titled “The 365 Project”, in which an artist is invited every two months to present a new work among the Museum Gallery’s existing artworks, is organized and curated by Olga Daniilopoulou.
Bio
Michael Petry
Michael Petry (b. Texas, 1960) has lived in London since 1981. He studied at Rice University, Houston (BA), London Guildhall University (MA), and has a Doctor in Arts from Middlesex University. Petry is an artist, author and Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) London, and writes for Huffington Post. He co-founded the Museum of Installation, was Guest Curator at the Kunstakademiet, Oslo, Research Fellow at the University of Wolverhampton, Guest Curator for Futurecity and was Curator of the Royal Academy Schools Gallery. Petry is a Fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors (FRBS) and a Brother of the Art Workers Guild. Petry co-authored Installation Art (1994), and Installation in the New Millennium (2003), and authored Abstract Eroticism (1996) and A Thing of Beauty is…(1997). The Trouble with Michael, a monograph of his practice, was published by Art Media Press in 2001. Petry’s book Hidden Histories: 20th century male same sex lovers in the visual arts (2004) was the first comprehensive survey of its kind, and accompanied the exhibition Hidden Histories he curated for The New Art Gallery Walsall. His two-volume book Golden Rain (2008) accompanied his installation for the On the Edge exhibition for Stavanger 2008, European Capital of Culture. Petry was the first Artist in Residence at Sir John Soane’s Museum (2010/11) exhibiting two bodies of work, published in Smoke & Mirrors (2011). His one man show The Touch of the Oracle at the Palm Springs Art Museum (2012) was accompanied by a ten year career review book. Petry’s work was included in the 2015 Frontiers Reimagined at the Venice Biennale, and his one-man show AT the Core of the Algorithm accompanied his Campbell Lectures at Rice University. Recent solo shows include: A Twist in Time, at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester (2016) and In the Realm of the Gods, at the Holburne Museum, Bath 2017/8.
Petry’s books include The Art of Not Making: The New Artist Artisan Relationship for Thames & Hudson (hardback, 2011, paperback, 2012) and Nature Morte: Contemporary Artists reinvigorate the Still-Life tradition ( published in 2013 in 4 hard back editions, T&H [UK/American], Hirmer [German] and Ludion [Dutch] and The WORD is Art (T&H, hardback:2018,Paperback:2021) looks at the use of text in contemporary art. They have had extensive touring exhibitions based on the books at major museums across Europe (see Projects). His current book is Mirror Mirror: the reflective surface in contemporary art (see Mirror Mirror).