The best way of approaching an art fair is to trust first impressions then let your eye lead you through the exhibits.
Arriving by golf buggy up a hill towards the Commanding Officer’s House helps establish a critical one. The view of the Portsea front beach from the house gets five stars so the art better be good.
There are ten galleries showing in the second Quarantine Art Fair, most from Melbourne, with a couple of agencies thrown in.
The most relaxed on the opening day were Kalli Rolfe, who calls herself the original pop-up lady, and Andy Dinan from Mars Gallery who was at her 30th art fair.
The bottom line is that chatty art dealers help a viewer feel at home after making the long journey and should be thanked for being so charming.
Two artists caught the ferry all the way from Queenscliff to Sorrento then traversed the Millionaire’s Walk along the coast and crossed Point Nepean Park on foot to get there. That’s some journey.
After all that footwork, tight little abstractions that work in town might look out of place in a sun-soaked setting such as Portsea.
A site-specific sculpture of a large pear is the first exhibit to get the critical juices flowing. It puts Australia on the map in terms of art plus captures the setting in a full frontal. But is such a work a little too literal for the feeling you have about place?
Five modest little sketches on paper by Nik Pantazopoulos seem to capture the setting more intimately, one a modernist yacht, others symbols of an ancient seat of learning.
The next are some Symbolist paintings by Ember Fairbairn, a recent graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, with subtle painterly textures that are very pleasing like the overlap of shapes outside the door.
There are some great visual gags at the Murray White Room by Alasdair McLuckie, including a painting leaning up against the window, and some beautiful landscapes of the Peninsula with textured black oil on recycled aluminium offcuts by Kate Lewis at Mars Gallery.
Some gallerists are very experienced at handling the art fair scene and don’t have a printed catalogue for their rooms because the art sells fast and they replace it as it sells.
“Art fairs are a great way of testing out new artists that aren’t represented,” says Andy Dinan of Mars Gallery. “This fair is very relaxed.”
She compared it favourably to big overseas art fairs in which galleries “are in little stalls like animals” and feel like they’re the ones on display.
The setting counts, she said. “We had an owl on the wall and thought no-one would notice it but it’s already sold.”
Galleries don’t generally select works based on content but there’s no escaping the fact that visitors to Point Nepean are probably attracted to nature and being out in it. You can’t escape the sun and the sea.
Art dealer Kalli Rolfe is an old hand at respecting place. She organises venues to suit a show rather than the other way around.
“Once I had a huge exhibition of Juan Davila work at a performance hall and suspended the paintings from the balcony. Sometimes restrictions, you can bend.”
Quarantine Art Fair continues at the Commanding Officer’s House – Point Nepean National Park, Portsea, until 11 January 2025. For more information, visit: www.quarantineartfair.com for details.
Images: Commanding Officer’s House with Kenny Pittock’s The World’s Gone Pear Shpaed (2022) in the background – photo by Rhonda Dredge | Installation view of Quarantine Art Fair – photo by Rhonda Dredge