Unveiled | In Conversation with Vincent Fantauzzo - BRISBANE

We are delighted to present award-winning artist Vincent Fantauzzo In-Conversation, to discuss his new book, Unveiled followed by an exclusive book-signing and viewing of his artwork.

• Date: Thursday 27 March 2025
• Time: 6pm to 8pm
• Location: Crystalbrook Vincent, 5 Boundary St, Brisbane City QLD 4000
• Hospitality: An exclusive evening with Vincent Fantauzzo and like-minded people to celebrate the launch of Unveiled, including two-hour canape package and welcome spritz.
• Cost: $55 per person
• Bookings close: Monday 24 March
  

Program overview

• In conversation with Vincent Fantauzzo
• Book signing
• Artwork viewing

Unveiled

The incredible true story of how a street-fighting petty criminal, who was kicked out of school at fourteen, became one of Australia’s most celebrated and successful portrait artists. Raised amid poverty and violence on the poor streets of Melbourne, Vincent Fantauzzo was just a boy when he accepted he would either die very young, become a gangster or end up behind bars. Tormented by a troubled home life and dismissed as a simpleton at school where he struggled to read and write, Vincent projected a violent and frightening persona as a means of self-protection. Inside that tough exterior, however, lived a thoughtful, sensitive and creative boy whose only wish was to be loved – and to one day break free of the intergenerational dysfunction he seemed doomed to inherit. He could never have imagined how far his dream of a better life – and an uncanny knack for drawing – would take him.

‘Breathtaking, beguiling and brutal. I wanted to reach in and steal that beautiful boy away from all the honesty. I wanted to run with him. I wanted to read, laugh, scrap, cry and draw with him. Keep drawing, kid. Just keep drawing! At last we have the answer to how Vincent Fantauzzo is able to capture all those human portraits with such perfection: the man has lived every sorrow, every fear, every pain, every wild joy to be found in the human experience. It is all here in these pages, too. Wonder, most of all. Read it. Please, please read it.’ Trent Dalton

Vincent Fantauzzo

Born in England and grew up in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. Fantauzzo emerged onto the portrait scene when his portrait of his friend Heath Ledger won the People’s Choice Award at the 2008 Archibald Prize. The painting was acquired for the Art Gallery of New South Wales collection, and Fantauzzo won the People’s Choice Award again in 2009, 2013 and 2014. In 2011, his Archibald-shortlisted portrait of chef Matt Moran won the Packing Room Prize; and his painting of director Baz Luhrmann was awarded the Moran National Portrait Prize the same year. In 2018, he was commissioned by the Historic Memorials Committee to create the official portrait of Julia Gillard for the Parliament House collection. The National Portrait Gallery commissioned Fantauzzo in 2020 to create a portrait of Hugh Jackman, the first representation of the famed Australian for the collection.

For further information, please contact Katie Flockart on 0419 148 208.

We look forward to celebrating art, stories, and creativity with you.

Crystalbrook Vincent with Vincent Fantauzzo