Having put aside any commitment to style or medium, Gallery Barry Keldoulis offers a dynamic engagement with the ideas that are shaping contemporary culture presented through a range of innovative arts practices.
The buzz is about ideas, as much as it is about providing a platform for art. It is not surprising to find that Keldoulis began his involvement with art through an education in philosophy.
As a gallerist he is eager to engage with what an artist is exploring in their work rather than shaping their output around purely commercial possibilities. In three short years he has managed to present more than 40 exhibitions that have run the gamut of media from installation and video through to the more traditional formats of painting and sculpture. The gallery operates more like a project space than a shopfront for safe domestic art objects.
Keldoulis spent nine formative years working in the maelstrom of the New York contemporary art scene in a period when ideas were valued over medium. In developing his gallery he has made a similar commitment to younger emerging artists whose work engages with a freedom in exploring the means of creating art. This commitment has drawn results.
Recently five gallery artists were awarded new work grants from the Australia Council, several were awarded overseas residencies, and work was bought by major state and regional galleries and museums.
Gallery artists showcase this diversity. They include the innovative light works of Jonathan Jones (see aAR 9), the photographic based and video work of Jess McNeil, the evocative paintings of Fiona Lowry, the photo and video work of Hayden Fowler, and the installation practices of Sean Cordeiro and Claire Healy. These are diverse approaches prickling with ideas that have seen these artists exhibit overseas and led to their inclusion in major surveys of contemporary art.
This is part of Keldoulis's horizon of promoting Australian art in an international context because he prefers to work beyond a regional or local context. In 2007 Keldoulis will expand this commitment by exhibiting the work of Jitish Kallat from India, who was also included in the recent the Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane.
Keldoulis has made a dynamic incursion into the Sydney scene in a way that is forging an exciting future for both creators and observers of contemporary culture.
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Image: Sean Cordeiro & Claire Healy, Deceased Estate, 2004, photographed by Christian Schnur, Lambda print, 110 x 141 cm, edition of 10, installation of entirely found detritus from artists' warehouse. Courtesy the artists and Gallery Barry Keldoulis.