PRESS RELEASE – LUSTRE: Contemporary Artists in Greece & Crete

Published on 20 July 2026

A powerful new exhibition exploring the legacy of the Allied campaigns in Greece and Crete during the Second World War will be on display at Mudgee Arts Precinct from 24 July.

LUSTRE: Contemporary Artists in Greece & Crete brings together works by contemporary Australian and New Zealand artists who retraced the journey of Lustre Force, the combined Allied units deployed to defend Greece from Nazi invasion in 1941.

On 6 April 1941, German forces launched an attack on Greece, vastly outnumbering the Allied troops sent to support the country. Among those forces were 17,125 Australians and 7,700 New Zealanders, who fought a difficult retreat from northern Greece through to the beaches of the Peloponnese before many were evacuated to Crete. The campaign was marked by extraordinary courage and sacrifice. However, the Allied defence of Greece collapsed within three and a half weeks, while Crete fell to a Nazi airborne invasion just ten days after the attack began.

To document these events, Australia and New Zealand commissioned war artists and photographers, including Australian war artist William Dargie, who recorded the battlefields, landscapes and communities affected by the conflict.

Eighty-five years later, a group of contemporary artists from Australia and New Zealand undertook a two-week journey from northern Greece to Crete, following the same route travelled by Allied soldiers during the campaign. Some of the participating artists have Greek heritage or family connections to those who served during the war, bringing a deeply personal perspective to the project.

Walking the battlefields and visiting the cemeteries where Allied and German soldiers are buried, the artists created new works that reflect on themes of endurance, sacrifice, protection and remembrance. The exhibition presents these contemporary responses to the landscapes and communities of Greece and Crete, highlighting both the resilience of the people and places shaped by war and the lasting impact of conflict across generations.

Participating artists: Euan Macleod, Steve Lopes, Rodney Pople, Deirdre Bean, Amanda Penrose Hart, Joanna Logue, Michelle Hiscock, Riste Andrieviski, Michael Bradfield, Alan Jones, Natalie O’Connor and Angeliki Androutsopoulos. 

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Image: Euan Macleod Final Withdrawal (detail) 2025 – 26, 123 x 160cm, oil on polyester. © the artist.