Why did you open your gallery?
I opened my first gallery in 1987. The 80s saw a huge development in collecting New Zealand art, both historical and contemporary. During this time I was working as an art consultant drawing together collections for individual collectors and corporate organisations. Opening a gallery was a natural progression. The doors opened six weeks after the share market crash … but here I am still.
If you could own any work of art, what would it be?
Colin McCahon’s The Northland Panels (1958). It was the first work I encountered that I felt really captured the unique nature and spirit of the New Zealand landscape.
Share a memory of working with an artist?
I have worked with so many artists over the years and each relationship has been uniquely inspiring and uplifting. I feel enormously privileged to have these relationships and the ongoing conversations about their practice. And there is nothing that compares to that moment you walk into an artist’s studio and see the manifestation of all that creative energy!
What are you reading/watching/listening to?
I just finished Vincent O’Sullivan’s Ralph Hotere: The Dark is Light Enough: A Biographical Portrait (Penguin 2020). Despite the fact that none of the paintings were illustrated due to copyright issues, and he said he had no real knowledge of writing about art, he managed to beautifully express the life-force of this man and his work.