Rupert Myer admitted that he’d been given a very specific brief for his welcoming address: whip the crowd into a philanthropic frenzy of mayhem art buying, creating a fever of constant cash register bleeping and Eftpos machine blooping, penetrating the chatter round the Calendar cheese table. There was barely a dollar of credit left on […]

The last time I ended up in a hotel room with an art dealer, I came very close to being curated. It was touch and go…. A group of young renegade galleries has broken away from the Melbourne Art Fair, opting to host their own boutique art fair at nearby landmark, the Windsor Hotel. Spread […]

There was so much art to take in at the Art Fair that I got art blur. That’s when you can’t remember what you like (or not) anymore, nor why. You need a vacation, some down time to work through it. It’s as confusing as surfing the Internet too long in one sitting without a […]

Money can’t buy you happiness but it can buy you art. And artists. The Melbourne Art Fair is about living, breathing artists producing contemporary art that’s up for grabs. This years Vernissage was a celebration like no other, boss Barry Keldoulis realizing if you want to throw a vibrant party you invite artists. 300 of […]

Artist Gunter Christmann and his life partner Jenny Christmann were legends. Free thinking eccentrics of the first order. Influencing younger artists with their mischievous playful anarchism from four floors up in downtown Darlinghurst. Just across the road from the art school, perfectly situated to challenge a few young brains over a coffee. I never met […]

If you’ve been thinking the art world is in a mess, then you should cast an eye sideways to a nearby sporting field: Messy. There’s match fixing, gambling, performance enhancing strategies, and the common ‘party goes bad/late night motel room mishap’ narrative. There’s also the Twitter/Facebook ever-present potential scandal, the dangers of which are difficult […]

One Day at Victoria Police HQ: “Sergeant! We’re not reaching the kids of Melbourne! They think we’re a bunch of cops!” “Might I make a suggestion sir?” “By all means!” “Popular. Music…” The Victorian Police Force are not all about fines, Tasers and arresting Paul Yore’s art. Today’s men and women of the Police also understand […]