Art curator, valuer, researcher and writer
Know what you’re looking at
Our Services
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Writing
Providing insightful interpretative and critical texts to inform and stimulate art appreciation
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Research
Accurate identification, establishing provenance and contextualising artworks within art and social history
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Collection Management
Expert advice to create, catalogue and maintain harmonious art collections, placed to create thought-provoking dialogues
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Valuation
Professional independent appraisals, insurance and fair market valuations, for all forms of fine art.
Recent news and articles
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"John Brack’s metaphorically political still life, The Club, 1989, consigned from the collection of Melbourne art doyens, Bill Nuttall and Annette Reeves, achieved the highest price on the night, selling for a hammer price of $520,000*, more than double its previous auction price, and surprisingly fought out entirely online - a sign of the times!"
Auction Review - Important Australian and International Fine Art, Menzies, Melbourne, Wedenesday 19 November 2025 - Exclusive to AASD
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"In reducing the vast scale of an airport to that of a single man, Jeffrey Smart zooms in on a small pictorial incident, concentrated in the pool of light in the top left-hand corner of the canvas. Through a sophisticated interplay of surfaces and diagonals of light and shadow, Smart skilfully draws the eye to the startlingly white phone handset and to the mysterious communication with the outside world that it implies."
Deutscher and Hackett, Important Australian + International Art, Melbourne, 26 November 2025
Lot 16
Jeffrey Smart, Night Stop, Bombay, 1981
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Without having removed his shoes or the day’s suit of grey serge, a young man sleeps the sleep of the dead, sinking heavily into a bed still made. Bright light reflected from a single chamberstick floods the bedsit, carving rhythmic shadows from the splayed fingers of his dangling hand. This surreal scene is the work of Australian artist William Dobell (1899-1970), painted crisply and with exquisite textural detail on a small wooden board during a period of great economic hardship in 1930s London.
Before My Own Eyes - Substack
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The best paintings stop you in your tracks. An astonishing painting of an industrial accident by the incomparable Robert Campbell Jnr offered at an auction at Bonhams this week intrigued me, and I just *had* to find out more…Sparking thoughts about the news and collective memory.
Before My Own Eyes - Substack
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"Recently, my work brought me into contact with the early figurative paintings of popular Australian artist Margaret Olley - a small group of works featuring First Nations Australian sitters, which, although critically acclaimed at the time of their creation, were largely overlooked in the latter half of the 20th century. It piqued my interest that Olley, primarily known for her sumptuous still life and interior paintings, had painted these works for a short time (between 1962 - 1970) before abandoning the subject matter entirely, and that she chose to do so at a crucial historical juncture in suffrage and civil rights for Indigenous Australians in Queensland. Are these works deserving of a critical re-evaluation, and how much can we ascertain about Margaret Olley’s intentions sixty years after the creation of these works and more than a decade after the artist’s death?"
Before My Own Eyes - Substack
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Discover a unique cultural walk along the Mosman foreshore allowing you to follow in the footsteps of famous artists and explore the stunning harbour landscapes that inspired them. Experience the beauty of Mosman's waterways and hidden coves, and see same scenes captured by painters including Margaret Preston, Arthur Streeton and Ethel Carrick Fox.
Balnaves Foundation and Mosman Art Gallery, launched 30 April 2024
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"International ceramics and monumental sculpture by modern masters from private Australian collections performed well at Bonhams' sale of Important Australian and Modern Art in Sydney on Tuesday, 6 May.Pablo Picasso’s editioned ceramic plate, Vallauris, 1956, lot 5, from the Cheong Family Collection, sold or a hammer price of $80,000, eight times its presale low estimate."
Australian Art Sales Digest: Exclusive Auction Review, Bonhams Sydney, Important Australian and Modern Art, Tuesday 6 May 2025
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Lesley Dumbrell. Thrum, Art Gallery of New South Wales - "But now is the time that sexuality should be revalued within abstract painting modes to save it from the art-for-arts’-sake vacuum into which it has been drawn"
Substack - Before My Own Eyes