In Mongrel, Abdul Abdullah teases out the conflicts of mixed race with insight and tenderness. After being awarded the Blake Prize for Human Justice for his examination of his Muslim Australian identity, Abdullah has now turned his attention to Australian Eurasians. While the portraits included in this exhibition are deeply personal, drawing from Abdullah's own experiences as an Australian Eurasian and based on Abdullah and his friends, they all speak of the universal need to define oneself. In a practice that continues to evolve across new subjects and mediums, Abdullah remains committed to exploring the beauty, the complexity and the challenges of identity, defying those who rob humanity of its riches through one-dimensional labels.

The bulk of the paintings in this exhibition are portraits of Asian-Caucasians gazing upwards. Captured in this simple gesture are all the fine shades of emotion felt by people labelled as 'mongrels': awe, hope, defiance, woe and longing. From afar, their faces do not appear out of the ordinary. Up close, they reveal a busy patchwork of brushstrokes, a rough blend of skin tones and colours. Alongside these portraits are three framed works by Abdullah that serve as an introduction to The Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a collaborative project by Abdul Abdullah, Nathan Beard and Casey Ayres. These paintings portray the artists as ambassadors of a fictional pan-Asian empire, all bedecked in exotic gold regalia. True to Abdullah's struggles with identity, these portraits don't quite 'fit'. Beneath the pomp are faces heavy with melancholy, the canvases haphazardly slotted into slipshod gilt frames. The Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere will culminate in an exhibition at NGV: Studios as part of the 2012 Next Wave Festival.