The Sydney Morning Herald notes the strong presence of Australian collectors at ArtHK in Hong Kong and the growing number of galleries in Sydney selling international art. This is a sea change for the Australian market, the paper says:
the gradual infiltration of Sydney galleries by overseas work has been under way for a long time. Annandale Galleries has been one of the leaders of this trend, holding successful shows by artists such as William Kentridge, Leon Kossoff and John Virtue. Roslyn Oxley has hosted exhibitions by Yayoi Kusama and Wim Delvoye; Rex Irwin was showing artists such as Lucian Freud before they became art-market superstars. Ray Hughes was the first to acquire a taste for contemporary Chinese and even African art.
Last year, Andrew Jensen opened a gallery that took the commitment to overseas work a step further, with a stable that includes challenging abstract artists and minimalists from Europe and the US. Now we have the New Albion Gallery, a venture by auctioneers Deutscher Hackett, dedicated to showing well-known international artists who have never been exposed to the Australian market.
Foreign Affairs (Sydney Morning Herald)
