AUSTRALIAN artist Charles Billich is of a rare breed, a “celeb” artist who always causes controversy in the art world.

He was named the Artist of the 1996 Summer Olympics, he has also been the 2000 Sport Artist of the Year Award, and the creator of “Humanity United” painted from a brief extended to him by the Australian Red Cross to commemorate the 2001 Centenary of the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Inspired by his work entitled The Beijing Cityscape, the official image for the successful Beijing bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games, Billich conceived a series of images based on the Bing Ma Yong Terracotta warriors, now represented on a collection of 16 postage stamps in China.

During his 40+ year career, Billich has been guest and resident artist in the Vatican Museum, the White House, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, the Royal Palace in Tonga and the Red Cross Museum in Geneva.

His painting subjects range from ballet and architecture to eroticism, classicism and pre-eminently sport, usually achieved with a surrealist touch. Billich and his wife Christa swept through town recently for the opening of his  “Elegantly Aggressive” exhibition that celebrates the Grand Prix, its power and movement.

“Elegantly Aggressive” by Charles Billich continues at the Strayleaf Gallery, 80a Phyllis Ashton Circuit  Gungahlin until April 12.