The Cultural Curators Reframing our Private and Commercial Collections

THE AUSTRALIAN, JUNE 5, 2024

Ali Hillman, founder of Friday Trampoline art consultancy, and development manager at Artspace, a public gallery in Woolloomooloo, Sydney, has a similarly global perspective having returned home from London mid-pandemic. “Balancing commercial and public art interest is key to this issue,” begins Hillman. “The role public collections play in fortifying an artist’s legacy is crucial and consequently, commercial galleries often feel the need to consider commercial demand for an artist’s work in association with representation across institutional collections. “It’s also important for artists in high demand to purposefully maintain an archive that hopefully informs a retrospective one day. When works consistently disappear into private collections, it’s hard to create permanence and impact around an artist’s career.”

In London, Hillman began her art journey as group curator for Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s members’ clubs, which included sites in London and LA. “I was able to build artistic programs for public spaces and patron or membership-based groups and it allowed me to grow audiences for emerging artists, creating opportunities for audiences.

It is work she has continued at home with Sydney members’ club Vault House, where she recently commissioned Sydney-based artist Daimon Downey to create  Brutalist- inspired works in response to the industrial architecture of the group’s latest property on Clarence Street. “Art increasingly operates as culture capital, and key art placement can be particularly significant during the launch phase of new commercial entities especially in hospitality-driven ventures like hotels, restaurants and clubs,” she says.

For Hillman, commissioning work remains a huge privilege, even if it does come with added pressures. She recalls working with Shan Turner-Carroll on an especially personal undertaking involving a telepathic session with Connie Mitchell of musical group Sneaky Sound System. “Connie and Shan never physically met, instead synchronising creative expression in a highly personalised artwork for Connie’s husband and Sneaky counterpart Angus McDonald,” shares Hillman. “Not many collectors can boast about work in their collections being telepathically bespoke.”

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Daimon Downey

VAULTHOUSE, 185 CLARENCE ST, FEBRUARY 9,  6PM

Vault House is thrilled to present a new body of work by artist Daimon Downey, specially developed as an inaugural artistic commission for the new Clarence Street site.

Moving away from representational genre the artist is typically known for, this series showcases minimal abstraction in compositionally led paintings that strike purity in straight lines and concentric geometry.

Forged in architecturally driven materials; resin dipped timber enveloped in high gloss acrylic paint , processes that lend to Daimon’s practice, which is fast, confident, and deliberate.

The hard-edge cascading squares give the impression of wet windows and interior space. They also feel reminiscent of sexually charged Fontana slash paintings, or in Daimon’s words signify “Brutalism lifting her skirt”.

Disciplined while playful, the reductionism that scaffolds this series heightens Downey’s deft approach to colour, pushing two tones into relief sculpture arrangements that balance contrasting cool shades of blue and grey with earthy palettes.

Effortlessly creative, Daimon’s distinctive style typically synthesises abstract representational imagery with colouration and musicality. His art has a sense of urgency. It’s fast, liberating, and exudes joy.

His practice perpetuates a dialogue between abstraction and figuration, re-presenting objects we encounter in everyday life and bolstering them with curiosity and energy. Having worked across a variety of disciplines, initially cutting his teeth in performance, Daimon subsequently embraced painting, ceramics and sculpture…At the heart of everything he makes is a celebration of joyful creativity.

International Women’s Day

MARY’S NEWTOWN, MARCH 8, 2023

Fundraiser for Women and Girls Emergency Centre at Mary’s Newtown.

Focusing on women founders in the arts, Ali interviewed Ashleigh Jones, founder of Passage Gallery, an installation dedicated exhibition space. Ashleigh shared experiences ranging from identifying a gap in the market for early to mid career installation artists, developing her creative vision for the program and securing public funding.

In Australia a woman is murdered every week by her current or former partner. WAGEC creates safe spaces for women and children who have experienced homelessness and domestic violence. They support women on their own journeys to financial independence, giving kids what they need to thrive, and offer help in the recovery from trauma. WAGEC accommodates 200 women and children nightly.

Zara June Williams

VAULTHOUSE, JANUARY 2023

Celebrating the talent of young Australian abstractionist Zara June Williams, Friday Trampoline will host a special showcase at Berrima Vault House January 21st.

Zara is a unique talent; she received the prestigious Lift Off Award when graduating from her Masters at the National Art School in 2018. Zara subsequently travelled to Leipzig, undertaking a residency post graduation and only recently returned to her native Australia from Paris last year.

She is currently preparing for her next solo exhibition at COMA in March 2023.

Tristan Chant

VAULTHOUSE, NOVEMBER 2022

Tristan Chant re-contextualises Dutch master paintings in his inimitable maximalist aesthetic, pulling imagery through audio software and various processes of digital collage. Bold and glitchy work contiguously adorns Vault House.

It was a pleasure to collaborate with James Kerr of Roberston gallery, Jennings Kerr in presenting this work.

Concord Art Prize

VOGUE AUSTRALIA JUNE 2022

‘Australian art curator Ali Hillman pioneered the Concord Art Prize, which invites emerging artists to create works inspired by Concord Records’s most famous acts, such as Pink Floyd.’

‘Since returning to Australia with one suitcase in March 2020, art curator Ali Hillman has made it her prerogative to maximise time spent in nature. “I feel very lucky to be able to walk in the national parks and have access to the sea.” Hillman has worked on some of the international art world’s most cutting-edge projects – she developed public art programs in London and LA for Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, and pioneered the Concord Art Prize. Now she’s curating the art program at Vault House in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. She’s seen the ideals of the local arts scene shift and broaden since she left for London back in 2006. “We have so much to offer here, and possibly even because of the pandemic, we’re thinking outside the traditional ‘Paddington gallery’ mould, notes the curator. “There’s room for a multitude of artistic voices that represent varying experiences and viewpoints, especially First Nations artists.”

Tamara Dean

DINER AT VAULTHOUSE
APRIL 14

Friday Trampoline is pleased to host dinner celebrating Tamara Dean’s exhibition in collaboration with Vault House and Michael Reid Gallery. The artist will be present, joined by collectors and Vault House members in support of her work.

Tamara Dean is a critically acclaimed photo media artist working in photography, installation and moving image. Her practice explores our connection to nature and rites of passage in contemporary life. In each of Dean’s photographs, her subjects quietly and intimately engage with their natural surroundings.

Dean’s work is represented in high profile collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Parliament House Collection, Art Gallery of South Australia, Artbank Australia.

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Mary’s

WOMEN IN THE ARTS SERIES

Building on the success of the recent International Women’s Day event, Friday trampoline is delighted to continue collaborating on a series of nights showcasing local female talent in visual arts and music. Celebrating female artistic talent, these events are ticketed with proceeds going toward Lou’s Place, Sydney’s only daytime refuge for women. Expect a cutting edge roll out of music and art coupled with Mary’s delicious food and drink.

These artworks by Georgia Saxelby and Carmen Glynn Braun.

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London St Pancras

HARRIET CLARE RICHARDSON

Eurostar currently supports an installation of Harriet Clare Richardson’s photography in their St Pancras Premier Business lounge. This body of work highlights Eurostar’s green credentials, referencing the beauty of nature in a suite of still life works depicting florals in motion.

The effect of capturing a sense of movement in the work mirrors the speed of travel, much like looking out a train window on your way from London to Paris.

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André Hemer

BRUSSELS MIDI

André Hemer (b. 1981, New Zealand) is a painter whose work investigates the bounds of materiality and appearances, and what it means to create paintings during a time in history in which the experience of an object is continuously blurred between states of physical and digital experiences.

He has exhibited widely in New Zealand, Australia, USA and internationally.

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Tim Maguire

VAULTHOUSE

Tim Maguire was born in the United Kingdom in 1958. He currently lives and works in Australia, France and the United Kingdom. In 1985 he studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and prior to that studied painting at the National Art School, Sydney, and the City Art Institute, (UNSW) Sydney.

Since then he lived and worked in Paris and London, and currently divides his time between Sydney and South-West France. His exhibitions include solo shows at IKON Gallery, Birmingham, Chisenhale Gallery, London, Art Gallery of NSW, and Newcastle Art Gallery.

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