New acquisitions - Michael Lindeman

So we went and picked up our latest acquisition today which was quite exciting as I had never actually laid eyes on it. This sounds like a really novel approach to collecting art but we had a good idea of what it would look like. We had commissioned Michael Lindeman back in November to make one of his text paintings for us. Michael has been doing a series of these paintings that basically rip off ads in the trading post (pictured attached is his Sulman Prize winning work from 2010).

I really enjoyed his show at Sullivan & Strumpf last year and remember trying to picture a link between any of the advertisements in that show and any of the stuff we owned at home. There was a ad for a painting of Gosford Harbour by a Russian artist that I thought might have fit the bill until we had the better idea to ask Michael to make us our own ad. My wife had bought a painting of Sydney Harbour before we moved to the US that I thought should be the inspiration. It was by Ken Knight, an artist who has churned out quite a few of these scenes. Now Knight gained a certain notoriety when a shonky Sydney gallerist bought a few Knight's, signed them as Arthur Streeton and then sold them 3 times to different folks for their self managed super!! Well Ken Coles is out of business but it turns out someone had actually placed an ad for a Ken Knight painting that noted a couple of those points. Michael tracked down this real ad and then basically just did a bit of copyediting so it would fit in a couple of lines. Once we were agreed on the text it was off to the races. And we even got to put our suburb and phone number on it (which is why it ain't pictured here!)

Points - 3 to Michael for a really cool idea executed flawlessly, to quote 'the dude' it really ties the room together. 2 for his gallery that helped make this happen and 1 for Ken, as if we didn't have a Sydney Harbour painting then we wouldn't have needed the ad.

Julian Meagher at Gallery Ecosse - 9 April

The team was back in Exeter this weekend and given Ecosse sits between two of our favourite landmarks (the General Store for lunch and the Train Station for train spotting with my 2 year old son) it was only natural that we would pop in to see what was going on.

Julian Meagher's solo show was opening this evening and there were already quite a few red dots before noon. You could see why as it was a really interesting collection of works that was priced attractively - most of the smaller works ranged from $1,400 to $1,900 with mid size works around $4,000 and bigger ones approaching $10k. I recognized Julian's work from some of the art magazines - it is fairly recognizable given he mixes Chinese pottery with booze such as Jack Daniels bottles or VBs. This show also included some tattoo paintings which looked good but I probably wouldn't put into the home collection as I don't want to encourage the kids to get any tough stickers. As a former doctor he had also included a skull which was inspired by his medical texts, one of the last of a series of skulls he has been doing, better get in quick for that one.

Points. 3 for the skull, which would suit anyone collecting the sex and death theme, perhaps Mona? 2 for any of the combo chinese vase / booze paintings; and 1 point for the team at Ecosse - they even have Sunday openings down in Exeter, how very Lower East Side of them!

Akira Kamada at Gallery @ 28 - 6 April

Gallery @ 28 (which would likely have to do a rebranding exercise if they ever left 28 Queen street) always has something interesting in their front courtyard and their latest show is no different. I saw it being installed on my way to work on Monday so decided to see the show when it opened Wednesday evening.

Akira Kamada is a sculptor that has been a finalist in the Woollahra small sculpture prize and also exhibited in Sculpture by the Sea so his pieces really run the gamut of size and this extends to his prices. The piece out front is called "Chaos and harmony" and is pretty big, which probably means on a cubic foot basis it is the bargain of the show at $13k! It is basically similar in design to what he had at Sculpture by the sea although this time he has painted the inside of the large wooden frames orange. It was this basic shape that appealed to me out of all his smaller works, mostly called "Constructions". These range from $500 for raw wood up to $2,000 for a painted work with lots more frames ("Shape of love"). The gallery had them hanging on walls or sitting on benches but I think they missed a great opportunity to take a leaf out of Sarah Cottier's book and hang some of these from the ceiling as mobiles! I think that is what we would do here if we brought one home. The balance of the show didn't really appeal but finding one thing is usually enough to bring me back.

Points: 3 - the big one, if I had the space or the country place I'd definitely consider it; 2 points for construction (orange) and 1 point for construction (green), I preferred them with a bit of colour and it will be interesting to pop in and see what sells.

New acquisitions - Ben Lord's "Humaliwo Chambers"

There is one set of editions we are very fond of here at Big Lamington HQ - the Peter Norton Christmas Project. Now if you haven't heard of it there is some great background reading here. The quick story is that art aficionado and billionaire Peter Norton (heard of Norton antivirus for your computer?) has publised an annual art edition to celebrate the holiday season which he then sends to his closest 2,000 mates. Now try as we might Big Lamington isn't yet on Peter's Chrissie card list but, shock horror, some of the recipients have taken to flogging his present on eBay. I learnt about the whole story back in 2005 in an interesting New York times article (here) and have been collecting them ever since, mostly on eBay but even the Moma store has a few spares for certain years. Now the last couple of years I have been buying them off an art insider that works at an unnamed US museum so had been a little concerned that it was March and it had been radio silence from my contact. Turns out the 2010 gift was running a little late. The identity of the artist is a secret each year so I was really interested to see who it was ...

LA artist Ben Lord has done the 2010 project. Called the "Humaliwo Chambers" it has been described as a meditation on 10,000 years of California history. The gift includes three print portfolios of an imagined archeologic dig in Malibu (Humaliwo being the native American indian name from which Malibu is derived). The prints are doubles and come with a rather large stereoscopic viewer so you can appreciate them in a kind of low res 3D (Harvey Norman eat you heart out). Now interestingly, the artist has kept a couple of AP's which he is trying to sell on his website for USD $500, which with the rampant Aussie Dollar is not a bad deal (although you don't get Peter's cool chrissie card and extra little gift). Alternatively you can keep your eyes peeled on eBay where I have seen one come up already.

Why would someone want to buy another persons Christmas presents? Well, in my opinion this does qualify as museum quality art (although I won't say which museum!), and when you have all the editions up to 2009 it is pretty hard to avoid signing up for 2010 (or future projects for that matter). Collecting the annual project has been a great way to learn about new artists and get a really good survey of contemporary art over the last two decades. The Norton project has been graced by a couple of reasonably big names (usually early in their careers) such as Yasumasa Morimura (1995), Kara Walker (1997), Vik Muniz (1999), Takashi Murakami (2000) and Yinka Shonibare (2002) to name a few. My top picks from the past have been Yinka Shonibare, who did a dollhouse which was an exact replica of his house in London and the furniture all used his trademark dutch wax cloth (we have two, one for the kids to play with and one just for looking!). The Morimura piece was another favourite - a fan with a photo of him emulating Marilyn Monroe (coincidentally that picture is also on page 527 of this months art & australia magazine).

Points: 3 to Peter, as without a Norton it would be hard to have a Norton Project - a real inspiration and I hope to do my own Christmas edition one day (so I can send one to you!) 2 to Ben for a really involved project - I did feel like a kid on Christmas day as I opened my box and set up the prints in the viewer. And 1 point for all those that decide to 'regift' by selling - I wouldn't have been able to get to know about this without you.

Huseyin Sami @ Sarah Cottier - 2 April

Sarah Cottier's gallery is a little bit out of the way on Nield avenue but what a great building, an old butcher shop cleaned up with the obligatory polished concrete floors and white walls. Even better for those with young art critics in tow is that the Dillon street reserve (3 swings and a slippery dip) is a few steps up the road and the Nield avenue maze is right next door. With extra curriculars like that yours truly was able to bargain a bit of gallery time on Saturday afternoon to check out the Huseyin Sami show - Prime Cuts.

I'd done a little bit of background reading on Sami and you would want to as otherwise you are looking at large colorful collages that don't really make much sense. He makes the raw material by putting house paint in a self made painting machine that drips the paint out everywhere before cutting up these sheets of dried paint and collaging the "cut" series of paintings (yours for $4,500 for the largest works, 152 x 111cm, most of them still available including the one pictured above left). I was actually drawn to the mobiles he had made by wrapping this dried paint around wire (above right). Free wall space is a luxury at Big Lamington HQ (and this is before two large commissions arrive!) so the idea of utilising the ceiling is appealing. These "summer mobiles" as Sami calls them come in all colours and two different sizes ($1,750 for the small and $3,000 for the large). My daughter loved them as well but then again she already has a few mobiles in her collection. I didn't really get the "summer" part of the title but guess given its only April these 2011 works were made in that season. There was also a series of smaller (45 x 36cm) print looking acrylics on canvas which shared the bargain status of $1,750 but didn't appeal to me - smaller than, and not as colourful as the "Cut's".

Points - 3 for the mobiles, I'd like one but would struggle to get it past the new acquisitions committee. 2 for the cut paintings which I think are probably priced incorrectly given they are visually arresting but are all still available two weeks in. 1 for the maze next door, and yes we did make it to the middle and found our way back out - three times!

Brooke Fitzsimons and Melinda Harper @ Tim Olsen - 26 March

My main problem with Art Month in Sydney is that they have all these events stacked in one month and I can barely get to any - doesn't anyone else have a hectic job and a bagful of kids? I missed all the artist talks in Paddo this weekend, my one art outing on Saturday was to Tim Olsen to see the new shows by Brooke Fitzsimons and Melinda Harper. I was there just before Brooke's talk (I had to go vote!) so could only interpret the show based on the little blurb up front. Brooke's current practice is to collect printed images as references with she paints and then she builds colour up over them with thin glazes of oil paint "until an intense luminosity is achieved" ... the original images "become evanescent". Which roughly translated means they are mostly one colour with what looks like stains on them. I did like the idea though, and they were right down the fairway of what I consider emerging artist pricing (aka affordable). Points for the pricing strategy, ranging from $1,250 to $9,500 with about a third under $3,000, a third around the $4 - 5,000 and the balance north of $6,000. It worked - lots of red dots here.

My heuristic of the least successful artist getting the upstairs treatment was called into question by Melinda Harper's show . The prices for these colourful works (which kind of reminded me of a bag of spilt lollies, see above) were a little higher but there were still some affordable options for those jonesing for a Harper. The smaller (under 50cm x 50cm) silk, thread and paint on embroidery works were selling for sub $2,000. The bigger oil on linen or canvas works started at $12,000 and went to $19,500. I can't really tell you which one I liked best as they are all called "Untitled". To me this really calls into question her commitment to contemporary art practice as naming a work is often the piece of art in itself!

Points, 3 for Brooke's 'Dip' (pictured top), 2 for 'Corner' and 1 point for Melinda's small embroidery works, #2 is probably the untitled I would've taken.

Auction @ Menzies - 24 March

I was interested to see how the secondary market was doing so it was off to Menzies to check it out. On the menu were predominantly 'modern australian' works (50's to 90s) with a handful of contemporary pieces from this century. Fresh in my mind was the following quote of a collector profiled in the March issue of Monocle ... "I research a lot, I go to fairs. I don't go to auctions because I don't buy secondhand. I buy directly from the galleries or the artists." Ouch! I'd have to keep my paddle on my lap.

This would be pretty easy as the only thing I was contemplating bidding on was a Daniel Boyd (King No Beard from 2006 - pictured left, the youngest work they had all night) although I was also interested to see how some of the contemporary artists would fare. I arrived at about lot 30 and they were going slooooow. Interesting crowd although not many under 40. The big sale was a bidding war for the Brett Whitely that graced the cover of the catalogue, eventually being knocked down for $1.56 million. It was a huge piece and admittedly quite stunning but imagine what you could get for that - hey Tim Olsen, I'll take all your shows from now till Chrissy, wrap 'em! The guy next to me got in a bidding war for a Ray Crooke (probably the only older work I would have wanted, and then only because I have a tiki bar to decorate ...) and he just missed out at $33k.

The interesting stuff was towards the back of the night. Alistair McIntyre was one of the first I recognized. There was a little bit of interest and this piece (The Ultimate Challenge from 2004) was knocked down for $4,000. Next was the Daniel Boyd. I was hoping there wouldn't be any bidders as I was only really interested getting a steal. But a couple of interested parties soon pushed it to $11k where it started to slow down and increase in $100 increments. One of the parties was the underbidder from the Whitely, amazingly he didn't win! I mean, bidding $1.5m for Brett and then not putting in another couple of hundred to get Daniel's King? Anyway $12,600 was the winning bid. But that is actually $15,120 with the 22% buyers premium and a little less than $11,000 for the seller - there's the auction house vig for you. Last lot I paid attention to was an early Darren Sylvester piece that was passed in at $7,500 for a set of 4 photos from 1999. It was an interesting night but it did confirm that it wasn't really my scene. A pity as auctions can be quite entertaining and I used to love going to Phillips De Pury when I lived in New York (but they have more of a reputation for auctioning fairly new work). If there is anything that really takes my fancy it will be absentee all the way.

Points, 3 for Brett (I bet Robin Gibson is wishing he hung on to that one); 2 for the Daniel Boyd and 1 for Ray Crooke.