ADI is an Australian born and based contemporary artist best known for his ‘False Idols’ series – unique collections of hand-crafted, pop inspired totems and reliefs.

ADI’s practice sits at the intersection of sculpture and hypebeast toy art, yet also manifests itself in the field of contemporary interior and object design. ADi has exhibited and is represented internationally with his creations being held in private collections worldwide. The artist has also worked with Melbournes famous National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) along with leading schools presenting inspiring workshops and programs for young artists narrated around his False Idols. 

ADi currently works from his private studio in Melbourne, Australia.

One of my first childhood recollections was at age 4 or 5 sitting in front of the TV, when an advertisement for Star Wars appeared. It was the Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia sequence of the two protagonists swinging across the chasm that was the Death Stars power unit column with the storm troopers in hot pursuit. 

This is my first memory of popular culture, or for myself now, nostalgia. The essence of nostalgia cannot be underestimated. Something deep in the human physce that brings into play deep emotion from the past. This sentimental attribute I feel all humans experience at some time, has created a genre of work prescribed entirely through this cultural narrative. The fusion of popular culture, design and art. This subject matter and artist output has shifted the art world substantially and redefined the classification of ‘art’, some may even say. 

ADi’s totemic wooden assemblages ‘False Idols’ envisage society’s obsession with popular culture, brand-recognition all evidenced through the insatiable appetite to consume. False Idols are envisioned as societies new deities, connected to the material or consumptive realm which has replaced this ancient idolatry inspired worship of the natural world and its relevant systems. 

In his reimagining of religious iconography, ADi seeks to bring an element of this splendour from the ancient world’s tribal artefacts, into a contemporary aesthetic that is relevant and defining of our times. Once completed and displayed these ‘False Idols’ transform into an object of worship, a contemporary artefact.