HOTA gallery opening: Hundreds of Gold Coasters flood through the doors for gallery launch.
PARIS has the Eiffel Tower - and the Gold Coast has the Home of Arts art gallery tower. That’s how chuffed Mayor Tom Tate sees it after the spectacular Saturday night launch of the $60.5 million HOTA Gallery. SEE THE FULL REPORT
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PARIS has the Eiffel Tower - and the Gold Coast has the Home of Arts art gallery tower.
That’s how chuffed Mayor Tom Tate sees it after the spectacular Saturday night launch of the $60.5 million HOTA Gallery housed inside a kaleidoscopic six-storey building at the Bundall precinct.
The unveiling involved a theatrical welcome to country performance at the amphitheatre as well as a visual feast projected onto the gallery’s controversial multi-coloured and panelled facade, complete with atmospheric music and fireworks.
Moments after the celebratory showcase of what the building could do - curated by artist Michael Zavros - a beaming Cr Tate said criticism of the HOTA Gallery tower was akin to protests by some of the world’s most prominent artists criticising the Eiffel Tower in 1887.
“I draw a parallel to the Eiffel Tower when in 1887, 47 artists were protesting and saying how hideous it looked. And they said we are going to have our lunch in the middle of the tower so we can look at Paris without seeing the structure itself.
“The attitude was it was so hideous they don’t want to look at it. I say to everyone … come right in the middle at the (HOTA Gallery) Palette restaurant or the top-floor Exhibitionist bar, you won’t have to see the building, you see all the Gold Coast - and bring your money.”
Asked if he felt the HOTA Gallery tower at Bundall - across the green bridge from Chevron Island was the city’s Eiffel Tower – he said: “Absolutely, it hasn’t just put the Gold Coast on the culture map, it really has put Queensland on it.
“And when you come in (it’s) typical Queenslander: colourful, happy unapologetic … and as you get to know the inside, you’ll know the elegance and sophistication is in our heart.”
‘OUR TIME TO BLOOM: HOTA GALLERY OFFICIALLY LAUNCHES
THE HOTA Gallery has officially “bloomed” as hundreds of Gold Coasters flooded in through the doors on Saturday morning.
A crowd of 400 people who snagged tickets to be the gallery’s first patrons watched on eagerly as Mayor Tom Tate cut the ribbon for the opening ceremony.
The six-storey, $60.5m gallery, first pitched almost a decade ago, has been under construction for several years. It is the largest gallery outside a capital city in Australia.
Mayor Tate said it was a key moment for the city, taking a jab at those who had labelled the Gold Coast a “cultural desert”.
“In the desert, after the rain it blooms. This is our time to bloom,” Cr Tate said.
“The Gold Coast’s culture has been on a long journey and that continues today.
“But some journeys we accelerate, and this is the acceleration point.
“It’s had its challenges, there was a lot of emotion when we voted to knock down the old buildings and put in the amphitheatre.
“But as it’s gone up there have been challenges less and less. Now It’s time to celebrate.”
The gallery, open to the public from Monday, has just four per cent of its art on display, with a further 96 per cent to be pulled from storage in the coming months.
HOTA CEO Criena Gehrke said it was a “gamechanger” to finally have people through the doors.
“I’ve thought it was amazing all along,” she said.
“When we started to install the exhibitions you got that real sense of the fact that the outside of the building is colourful, it’s bright, it’s brash, it’s full of bravado like the Gold Coast itself.
“Then you come inside and it’s sophisticated, it’s smart, it’s thoughtful and full of light and shade - like the Gold Coast.
“That juxtaposition was a real revelation moment.”
But she couldn’t be tempted to reveal any artists who the city might be trying to attract in future.
“We’ve got some fantastic exhibitions lined up, some incredible partnerships with national and international institutions.
“But our lips are sealed!”
HOTA had $6.6m in council-funded capital works, including $1.7m provided by the 2019-20 budget, as of early 2021.
More than $1.7m “under reprovisions” was spent to replace theatrical lighting, review finance systems, obtain a food truck, buy gallery furniture and improve the scenery around the lakes.
HOTA was the first operator in Queensland to resume performing arts programming, opening its cinema in June last year before other venues and had 90 per cent of its workforce returned by August.
About 73 per cent of sponsors remained committed to the cultural precinct and 91 per cent of benefactors continued their support.
Council had been unable to source an operator for the ground floor-cafe and level-five rooftop area leading ratepayers to fund the fit-out, and officers at a council committee meeting were asked about future arrangements.
Mayor Tate told the Bulletin in 2018 when the gallery’s first digital renderings were released the site reinforced “that quintessential spirit of the Gold Coast”.
“We do things differently, and apologise to no one for who we are,” he said at the time.
EXCLUSIVE: FIRST LOOK INSIDE NEW $60.5M EXHIBIT
May 1, 2021
CRIENA Gehrke leans in and whispers: “Yes … it is what you think it is.”
One week from the grand opening of the $60.5m HOTA Gallery, this is an exclusive peek behind the scenes with the CEO of our own Home of the Arts.
And “it” is certainly, well, revealing.
So what is it? It’s a collection of white, shiny objects — bones and shells and parts indescribable — interspersed with tufts of brown fur, all presented in a distinctly familiar, distinctly feminine shape — not quite a map of Tasmania, but definitely somewhere in the vicinity.
Criena draws closer to read the inscription, then gazes back up at the installation, which is part of Gallery 3’s Hyper-Aware exhibit that features 21st century highlights from HOTA’s vast collection.
“Or … maybe it isn’t,” she muses.
Look, if it is, let’s just say that it gives gallery patrons more to talk about than even the controversial six-metre outdoor sculpture, created by Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, standing by the entrance.
But what it is and what it isn’t, isn’t even the point … the point is that it’s here, and we’re talking about it.
That’s what art is all about, and finally art has its forever home here in our masterpiece of a city.
FULL DIGITAL ACCESS: $1 A WEEK FOR THE FIRST 12 WEEKS
Besides, perhaps Criena’s artistic impressions are coloured by her own labour of love as she guides the gallery through to its imminent due date.
Although as she keeps reminding herself, just like a pregnancy the finishing line is actually the starting point.
But this is one incredible baby.
Designed by international architects ARM with over 2000sq m of museum-standard exhibition space, the new Gallery will have the capacity for touring exhibitions of an international size and scale alongside exhibition spaces for the City Collection and smaller temporary exhibitions, a dedicated Children’s Gallery and almost 1000sq m for collection storage and exhibition preparation.
In this, its first public iteration, three stunningly scaled galleries present works from the 4400-strong $32m City Collection, including the magnificent mural-size artwork The Rainforest, created by arguably Australia’s greatest living landscape painter William Robinson. In fact, it is this work which inspired the unique design of the gallery itself.
On the ground floor is the showstopping 1000sq m showcase space that is so vast, it houses with ease the epically-sized art installations that make up Solid Gold: Artists from Paradise.
Those are the facts and the figures … but then there is the feel.
If the gallery’s exterior has Gold Coast residents divided, with its ultra-bright playful colours derided by some as an “overgrown kindy”, inside is pure magic — filled with light and space. It’s sexy and sophisticated.
There is not just art on these walls, the very walls are art.
And, as Criena points out, it mirrors the body and soul of our city.
“The Gold Coast gets ridiculed for its bright, brash character. It is a city of glitz and glamour — that’s what makes you look,” says Criena, who moved to this city eight years ago.
“But the inner life of the city is deep and rich. There is a soulfulness and a passion in the character and the environment of the Gold Coast … and it’s a culture that’s more sophisticated than many realise on face value.
“The beauty of the city is that we are not bound by tradition — and you can see that in the gallery. We’re not trying to be Melbourne, we’re just being ourselves … and that is completely addictive.
“I came here from Melbourne and I told my family it would just be for a year. But I could never leave — instead, they all joined me.
“Sometimes I think the Gold Coast is the most inappropriate love affair of my life, it’s such a wildly charismatic city, it’s such a place of opportunity, it’s not sensible but it makes complete sense.”
Criena says the HOTA Gallery experience itself will embody the Gold Coast character — a place to not just ponder but play and party.
From the ground-level casual, fine-dining restaurant Palette to the rooftop The Exhibitionist Bar, with its incredible views of the Gold Coast skyline only enhanced by the fact that resident mixologist Tom Angel is one of the top bartenders in Australia, to the casual HOTA Cafe, the arts precinct experience is not confined to one crowd.
In fact, Criena says board shorts and sandy feet are always welcome indoors.
“If you want to come in your cocktail dress and suit, that is absolutely fine. And when you leave, we want you to feel like you’ve just been to the best dinner party of your life.
“But if you bring the kids for a swim in the lake and then you want to wander inside, we want you.
“This gallery is for every resident. We want to make this fun, we want to make it personal. It should be somewhere mums and dad bring the kids and somewhere the kids want to go.
“We want to make art part of the everyday lived experience of every Gold Coaster.”
And it turns out this gallery is meaningful not just for local residents, but the entire art world.
CULTURE COMES AT A COST WITH HOTA A $20 MILLION OPERATION
Constructed and completed in the midst of a global pandemic, a crisis that has hit the arts industry hardest, its success has become a symbol of hope to artists and cities internationally.
“When COVID hit, we had a choice — either stop work or double down. We doubled down. It was incredibly difficult but we kept this workplace operating smoothly and safely — not easy given the challenges of social distancing on a worksite or even just accessing materials.
“It meant moving forward with our expressions of interest for the Solid Gold exhibit, but we just did not want to lose momentum or to let our artists down.
“Now we’ve come through it and cities and artists around the world can see how amazing the result is. We’re a beacon of hope that it’s still worth investing in the arts, that it’s a worthy attraction not just for tourists but the entire community. It’s investing in your soul.
“I think we have just been so incredibly fortunate to have the City of Gold Coast and Mayor Tom Tate backing us the whole way. It would be so easy to consider the arts an ‘extra’, as non-essential, but we have been elevated and I think it will pay dividends to the city in the long run.
COLOURFUL HOTA SCULPTURE UNVEILED
“Even just in terms of jobs right now, we have 120 full-time employees and 200 casuals … we’ve become a major employer. It’s incredible.”
Even before any international recognition, Criena says HOTA managed to secure a world premiere exhibition exclusive to the Gold Coast and Australia — Contemporary Masters from New York: Art from the Mugrabi Collection, drawn entirely from the famed art collector’s private collection.
Set to debut in November and featuring approximately 70 career-defining works from the likes of Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Richard Prince and Jeff Koons, Criena says the exhibit was secured through pure Gold Coast heart.
“I really don’t know how we ever had the gall to even think of asking for this,” she says.
“At the time there was no guarantee of funding, no gallery and no data … but we had a plan and we had backing from the City and we had self-belief — and somehow we made it happen.
“That’s the DNA of this city. We dream big and we’re not tied down by rules and traditions. We give it a go and we back ourselves — that’s how we’ve built this city, from the Q1 to the canals.”
GOLD COAST MAYOR’S TAKE ON HOTA CRITICS
And while every major development and every new chapter of this ever-changing town comes with its own controversies, Criena says she can sense a change in attitude as we come of age as a city.
Locals may still love to hate — or hate to love — some of our more colourful additions, but there’s a defensiveness now that only comes from an abiding affection.
“Among ourselves we might make fun of certain aspects of the city, but to any outsider we close ranks and defend our own. It’s great to see and feel that real sense of family developing in the community,” she says.
“Even with some of the reactions to Ramesh’s sculpture, or to the gallery building — you could see some of those comments change as the story went national.
“And isn’t that amazing in itself? Who would have thought the Gold Coast would be the centre of a national arts story?
“As much as this building and this art reflects the DNA of the city, I think it’s going to help change and elevate it as well. We’re our own work in progress.”
And what exactly are we? Just like that piece hanging in Gallery 3, just like HOTA itself, we’re whatever we want to be.
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