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| View of the Fair and Sally Gabori show at Alcaston Gallery |
Alison and I returned to the Melbourne Art Fair this year, having thoroughly enjoyed our first visit in 08. This biannual art event attracts about 30,000 people over six days and is housed in the spectacular Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton Gardens. The post Fair press release stated that this years Fair (the 12th so far) generated 11 million dollars in sales for the 77 exhibiting galleries. Interestingly 76% of works sold were in the $10,000 or less category. While they were quick to point out a 56% increase in the volume of sales it was later clarified that overall sales were slightly down on 08, which is really no surprise.
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| Tim Melville, Emma Fox, Jenifer Buckley |
From a New Zealand perspective it was sad to see the participating kiwi gallery numbers significantly down on last time, with many of the heavy weights staying home this year. However, the three gallant galleries that did take part all finished in good cheer - with keen interest in their artists work expressed by many and reported sales making it well worth while.
Conscious that I may be sounding a tad parochial, I’m going to say it anyway – the NZ galleries not only stood up to their Australia counterparts but they were shining beacons of great art, tastefully presented and eagerly discussed.
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| Helen and Dallas Fisher and Alison Ewing |
Each of the stands seemed a buzz whenever we visited and by the end of Saturday all three dealers were showing signs of weariness brought on by so much art chatter. Orexart and Tim Melville Gallery were there for the first time with two very different approaches. Tim Melville choose four of his artists – Joe Sheenan, Elliot Collins, Roberta Thornley and Wayne Youle. And in his inimitable way the presentation of the work was as elegant as ever and he was friendly and keen to engage all who stopped by. Orexart choose to profile one artist - Richard Lewer, fresh from his New York residency, where he has been tuning into police radio frequencies once again.
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| Rex Armstrong and Alison |
The exhibition looked fantastic and the stand was extremely well positioned among the first few at the entrance of the building.
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| Andrew Jensen |
The Jensen Gallery looked slick and stylish and was generating great comments from visitors with good sales and strong interest from some Australian collectors, so we heard. But for me it was just too much like last time, and I felt I had seen many of the works before, or if not at least ones very like them.
Artspace Auckland also had a part to play presenting projects by Campbell Patterson and Seung Yul Oh. I took quite a fancy to that little mouse considering the egg.
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| Peter Madden show at Ryan Renshaw Gallery |
While there were only three NZ commercial Galleries is was great to see another NZ artist receive the royal treatment. Brisbane gallerist Ryan Renshaw took on Peter Madden after his residency at the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane last year and he was their solo artist displayed at the Fair. This was a very busy stand and word was all works had sold.
We were joined at the Art Fair by two member of the Hamilton Sculpture Trust so when we weren’t at the Fair attempting to make sense of 77 Galleries and the artists they were profiling, we were deep in conversation about public sculpture - that is when we weren’t discussing the best Cantonese or Sicilian food in Melbourne - but that’s another story.
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| work by Seung Yul Oh |
