Sydney Road Gallery: The Birthday Show
After the uncertainty of the last year, Sydney Road Gallery celebrates its fourth year with The Birthday Show.
Words: Emma-Kate Wilson | Photography: Jessie Jay Photography
‘Some of the highlights of the show are inviting people who we'd like to hang with — we're wildly excited about their work,’ Fiona Chandler. Photo: Jessie Jay Photography.
The Power of Nature by Petra McGrath. Photo: Jessie Jay Photography.
Sydney Road Gallery is one that offers art with a bit of a twist; akin to an artist-run-initiative, the artists you see on the walls manage the space. However, the twist is that they are all commercial artists with the abilities to sell and engage interior designers for exposure, quite unlike your usual ARI that evokes student-run or just-emerging artists.
Sydney Road Gallery is run by a (primarily women-led) team who had held successful art careers off the backs of teaching, designing and engaging all the multiplicities of the creative life. The result? Dynamic art that rarely stays on the walls and solo shows consistently selling at 85%-100%.
After the uncertainty of 2020, celebrating four years of Sydney Road Gallery feels well deserved, and so, The Birthday Show, opening in June 2021, brings together the usual faces plus special guest artists who have shown with the gallery throughout the years.
From the likes of founders Fiona Chandler, Jessica Watts, Sarah Montgomery, and Amanda Tye; to Ben Waters, Ben Lucas, Joan Blond, Misha Harrison, Gail Affleck, and Marilou Palazon. Plus, never seen before guest artists Helen Proctor, Mitchell English, Brendan Kelly, Kylie Sirrett, Madeline Young, and Petra McGarth. ‘Some of the highlights of the show are inviting people who we'd like to hang with,’ shares Fiona Chandler. ‘We're wildly excited about their work.’
‘The birthday show is all about celebrating – after the year we've just come out of, and are still going through, the people that turn up every time we have an opening and chat and show enthusiasm. It's about being part of that massive community, creating art for people who love it, and keeping that conversation going and never taking it for granted.’
The exhibition will now be held online, due to the current COVID restrictions, ‘The gallery lights are on and the windows change daily for locals to enjoy on their daily walk,’ says Fiona.
Pictured top: Sulphur-crested Ruffian by Marilou Palazon and Collecting Sea Glass & Shells by Joan Blond. Photo: Jessie Jay Photography.
Pictured top: Somewhere South of Here II by Madeline Young, bottom: Sea Swept, Shadow #1 by Sarah Montgomery. Photo: Jessie Jay Photography.
“How does hitting four years feel? Well, considering we started out for a three-month hit, four years feels amazing.”
House on the Headland and Shack on the Inlet by Helen Proctor. Photo: Jessie Jay Photography.
Borrowed, Found & Foraged by Misha Harrison. Photo: Jessie Jay Photography.
The model of Sydney Road Gallery allows artists to engage monthly or take a hibernation to work on their art practice. Often names will reappear after a year away—much to collectors’ delight. With the collective spirit of the gallery, clients are an essential element of their exhibitions, becoming like family in the close-knit suburban Northern Beaches of Sydney. The ongoing support of collectors means these artists are able to make a living off their art and go on to enter prizes, show in Japan, take part in art fairs, or launch their own galleries.
Within the show, the artists encapsulate their snippets of life while reflecting on their practices as a whole. Amanda Tye presents her usual oeuvre of geometric landscapes that she is well-loved for, and Chandler captures the evocative state of paint in Chance is so kind. Guest artist Madeline Young, from Orange NSW, invites a slice of abstracted bushland in pops of pink, and Petra McGrath reveals a similar sentiment, yet wildly different in composition.
In Kylie Sirrett’s paintings, she depicts domestic life, fruit ready to be consumed, all while highlighting the beauty of the everyday. Likewise, Mitchell English narratives a scene familiar to those in Sydney—beach days with bodies relaxed on towels, surfboards at the ready—however, void from blues and greens, the artworks glisten on gold and yellow, offering a new contextualisation of coastal art.
After celebrating four years, it’s a great feeling to the gallery to have artists go off and join other galleries—even though they often return for group shows. Ash Holmes move to Studio Gallery, Leonie Barton at Curatorial & Co, James Gardiner at Arthouse Gallery, and Ben Waters’ sold-out show Michael Reid Northern Beaches. Chandler muses, ‘How does hitting four years feel? Well, considering we started out for a three-month hit, four years feels amazing. I would love that everyone who had come through our doors was still with us… But it's meant that our art community is much bigger than just this.’
‘The door is always open once you're an SRG artist; you're always an SRG artist,’ Chandler concludes. ‘Which is why we like to have a birthday party.’
Chance is so Kind by Fiona Chandler. Photo: Jessie Jay Photography.
We Must Bring Our Own by Kylie Sirrett. Photo: Jessie Jay Photography.
SYDNEY ROAD GALLERY: THE BIRTHDAY SHOW
451 Sydney Road, Balgowlah, Sydney
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