Rob O'Connor wins portraiture prize

Congratulations to Rob O'Connor for taking out first prize of $5,000 in the RACT Tasmanian Youth Portraiture Prize.

Tom O'Hern at Primavera 2011

Here's Tom with one of his works located in The Rocks, Sydney as part of Primavera 2011.  Because of renovations taking place at the MCA, this year's highly anticipated Primavera exhibition takes place in various locales around The Rocks.  Tom has 4 works located offsite as well as a suite of drawings in the Cleland Bond Store.  Do have a look if you are in Sydney - the show is on until 13 November. View more about the show at http://www.pv11.com.au/blog/

David Keeling exhibition complete sell out

Inside outside 2011 oil on paper on canvas 51 x 61cm

David Keeling's current exhibition New Rooms on at Niagara Galleries, Melbourne has sold out with still two weeks left of the show. This series of works see another shift in the artist's oeuvre by bringing us, the viewer inside.  Here we are indulged with glimpses of his well known landscapes through the angles of contemporary interior spaces.  Keeling's next solo exhbition is at Bett Gallery in July 2012.

The Esk Collection: 2001 - 2011

Congratulations to all members of the the Esk Collection who held their final meeting last week after 10 years of collecting contemporary Australian Art.  The group celebrated it's wind up with a dinner at Stillwater followed by an auction of the collection, which dispersed the 51 collected works amongst it's 30 members.

To quote Peter Timms,  "The Esk Collection Group demonstrates that collecting, rather than being competitive or obsessive, can be a cooperative and exploratory pursuit, focused not upon the endless amassing of things (having) but on the individual experiences they offer up (being).  Here we are presented with a very good example of collecting as a conduit for the development of taste and discrimination.  For what it's worth. Freud would certainly have approved."