Art Warehouse at Daly St, Darwin City to close after 18 years, owner Carol Phayer announces

A well-known Darwin artist who has plied her trade at the edge of the Darwin CBD for nearly two decades is shutting down her gallery (which doubles as a funeral home), but promises this isn’t the last we’ve heard of her.

Darwin artist Carol Phayer at her Daly St gallery, Art Warehouse. Picture: Alex Treacy

A well-known Darwin artist who has plied her trade at the edge of the Darwin CBD for nearly two decades is shutting down her gallery, but promises this isn’t the last we’ve heard of her.

Carol Phayer, owner of Daly Street’s Art Warehouse, which will shut its doors for good on Christmas Eve after a “once in 18-year sale”, said she had always been artistically minded growing up and sold her first piece at age 14.

“My mother raised my brother as a girl and me as a boy because I was always pulling apart everything, I loved pulling apart mechanical things, so from a really young age I was fixing everything, I was always outside making stuff,” Ms Phayer said.

“It’s just like breathing, you know.”

Ms Phayer, whose eclectic artworks adorn the gallery, as well as jewellery, fabrics and other trinkets, many of which are made in-house, said she had gone on to sell more than 950 artworks in her 18 years in business, as well as exhibited a who’s who of local art talent.

Inside Art Warehouse on Daly St, Darwin City, which is closing down after 18 years in operation. Picture: Alex Treacy

The artist, who once ran as an independent candidate for Port Darwin and had a career in business management prior to opening her gallery, said there was not much money in owning a gallery (Ms Phayer says it's the only one in Darwin that’s never received outside funding), but she loved it nevertheless.

“I’m very good with money, especially being a single mum,” she said.

“Especially with owning an art gallery where there’s not a lot of money in it.

“You’ve just got to be reliable. I’ve worked six days a week my whole life.

“I’m always here.”

She praised the Top End art sector for the way its members always had each other’s backs.

“We’re all really supportive of one another,” Ms Phayer said.

“And you have to be like that, you just get along with everyone because you are stronger together.

Inside Art Warehouse on Daly St, Darwin City, which is closing down after 18 years in operation. Picture: Alex Treacy

Ms Phayer also holds the distinction of owning what’s believed to be Australia’s only dual art gallery and funeral home, after the 2018 launch of her funeral service Happier Endings (the artist is also a certified death doula).

Happier Endings, which promises “affordable, environmentally friendlier and respectful funerals,” courtesy its use of cardboard caskets, discovered by Ms Phayer when she buried her father, will continue trading as a home business.

In addition to Happier Endings, Ms Phayer said she was considering returning to her business roots in 2025 via involvement in a tourism proposal.

It’s believed the landlord intends to demolish the building at 23 Daly St which housed the gallery.