My old buddy Sean invited me over to his place last night for a long overdue catchup. He’s lived in an apartment at Broadway for quite a few years now a while back he mentioned that he planned to re-invent the space. I was thinking new furniture, artwork on the walls perhaps… but as soon as I stepped into his apartment I found I was in an art gallery!
Sean’s current flatmate is Sokquon Tran, a landscape artist who’s mentoring him at the moment. Sokquon’s pretty good with his hands and he’s built a wall structure that covers the entire kitchen, benches surrounding what was the lounge room as well as an outdoor area to match. The idea is to have small private invite only opening nights, music, wine, nibbles, art talk.
Despite not having any art on the walls yet there was already wine and conversation flowing. I think the concept is brilliant. I’ve never felt like smaller galleries worked well post opening nights. I always assumed that a show would have little or no visitors during the week (dead) or so after opening night, but this negates that. An invite list prevents dealing with blow-ins from the street looking for free booze and having a gallery in such an intimate and comfortable setting works well socially.
Sean’s busy working on a web site for his new space. I’ll be sure to report back with a URL as soon as it’s up!