3 Australian galleries offering new ways of experiencing art

These three new galleries are offering new audiences fresh ways to view art.

Contemporary gallery Palas in Sydney’s Zetland. Picture: Courtesy of the artist and Palas

Around Australia, these three contemporary galleries are changing the way art is experienced by inviting fresh audiences in.

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Palas

Sometimes you just have to ask the question: are you thinking what I’m thinking? That’s what gallerists Tania Doropoulos and Matt Glenn posed to each other on a phone call after returning to Australia following years spent working overseas at art institutions including Frieze London and Sadie Coles HQ. Upon arriving home, both identified something was missing.

“There is a generational shift happening in Sydney, as well as more broadly in the country, in terms of galleries, museums and collectors,” says Glenn. “A few artists who we now work with were also looking for something new.”

Palas co-founders Matt Glenn and Tania Doropoulos. Picture: Courtesy of the artist and Palas

A year on from that phone call, the pair has joined forces to open contemporary gallery Palas in Sydney’s Zetland, with a serious roster of names including Marco Fusinato’s first Australian show since his run at the 2022 Venice Biennale, and this month, the first Australian exhibition of Canadian artist Tamara Hendson since she relocated to Canberra. “Tamara’s exhibitions are like their own ecosystems, or worlds, that invite us in,” says Glenn.

Next month, the two will travel to Art Basel before staging a group show in July and the first Australian exhibition of Irish sculptor Eva Rothschild outside of a public institution. At the core of Palas is collaboration; with artists, international galleries, collectors and museums.

“Artists located outside of major art centres have to work harder to maintain their visibility,” explains Doropoulos, “and their galleries must support this beyond the

biennials and museums. Also, when galleries work well together, it seriously benefits artists, and the broader ecosystems of curators and collectors.”

Laundry Gallery

When the creative director, curator and writer Nina Fitzgerald was growing up in Darwin, there was an historic working laundromat in the suburb of Parap that dated back to the 1970s. In 2022, it began a new cycle of life as Laundry Gallery, a creative hub for fostering, celebrating and exhibiting Indigenous art.

Co-founded by Fitzgerald and Laura Shellie, Laundry Gallery works closely with emerging First Nations artists. “The excitement and pride of working with and showcasing the work of a new artists, or someone who has not exhibited before, is priceless,” says Fitzgerald.

Nina Fitzgerald outside Laundry Gallery, Darwin. Picture:

The Indigenous curator, whose family hails from Kakadu in the Torres Strait Islands and the Wuthathi people of Far North Queensland, also takes pride in championing modern iterations of traditional culture. She points to the gallery’s 2023 exhibition Maminjirrada (Hook Spear) as an example, for which young artists from Groote Eylandt fused traditional weaponry techniques with contemporary references, such as Japanese manga.

This year, Laundry Gallery is continuing its mission to share Indigenous culture with new audiences. “So much of the profiled Indigenous art sits in the high-end price point and more traditional galleries and spaces,” she explains. “This isn’t accessible to these younger people with lower disposable incomes. We want to flip this and engage this demographic on a journey to learn and to prove it is a fun, enriching space they can interact with.”

Hake House of Art

Holmes’s Charcoal Run #1 (2023) and Charcoal Run #2 (2023) on display. Picture: Courtesy of AshHolmes

The first thing you notice when you step inside Hake House is how bright it is. The soaring, airy space on Sydney’s Northern Beaches boasts a sprawling glass shopfront; all the better to flood the space with light. This, says Ash Holmes, who opened Hake House in 2022 alongside friends and collaborators Jake Elliott and Sammy Nugent, was always intentional.

Jake Elliott, Sammy Nugent and Ash Holmes, co-founders of Hake House, in front of Different This Time (2024) and Active Surrender (2024) by Hake artist Loralee Jade.

“From the start, I had my eye on gallery spaces that could physically hold large-scale works with enough breathing space around them,” she explains.

No wonder – Holmes is an artist herself, known for rich, textured canvases that capture your attention from every corner of a room. And Hake House seems purpose-built for them, and for the works of the 27 other artists represented by the gallery. Drawing on Holmes’s own experiences, Hake’s representation goes beyond that of a traditional gallery. Everything from creative consultancy to residencies, events and photography come under its banner.

Of equal importance is giving back to the local creative community. Nugent points to a lunch held in summer when their represented artists were invited to the space to celebrate the year. “It really did feel like a big family catch-up.”

This article appears in the May issue of Vogue Australia, on sale now.