Art & Collectibles

Go Figure

Sculpture has been the unloved child of commissioned art in Australia in recent years, but that may be about to change. The director of Niagara Galleries in Melbourne, Bill Nuttall, says an increase in new wealth has given rise to a greater number of art collectors with country or seaside properties “and they are starting to want to incorporate sculpture into that”. He says artists to watch in this space include Robert Bridgewater, John Kelly and Rick Amor. “A lot of collectors haven’t yet become adventurous, where they say to someone ‘I want you to create a massive work or go beyond the boundaries’,” Nuttall says.

“They still want something you can plop down in the corner of the garden or in the middle of the paddock.” In fact, Nuttall’s chief gripe about commissioning in Australia is that clients fail to test artist’s creative boundaries.

"Collectors should be the visionary and the artists should have the vision."