THE art world is no stranger to controversy, but it's not particularly welcome in conservative Boort, Victoria.
Notorious criminal-cum-celebrity, author and artist Mark "Chopper" Read will open this week's annual Boort Memorial Hall Art Show. And locals are divided.
Organiser Wendy Morris invited him to perform the honours because they needed someone who could draw a crowd to the Mallee town of 800.
Chopper has donated one of his paintings - variously described by critics as abstract, naive or rubbish - to be used as a raffle prize. Money raised will help fund the hall's $300,000 restoration project.
Read will give a short talk, open the show and mingle with the crowd - but they won't necessarily be able to believe a word he says.
"Once I've got a camera in front of me I should be locked up in a cupboard," he once told one interviewer. I lie my head off."
The art show opens on Friday.
