Escaping to the Upper Hunter, JEREMY ECCLES savours a new must-see gallery...

Michael Reid at Murrurundi

Upper Hunter New South Wales

Friday to Sunday, 11am–5pm

Michael Reid boasts, “I’m the biggest supplier of art education in the country. It’s what we do, contextualising so that when you buy, you know a bit about what you’re getting into.”

The hyperactive Reid was busy adding another string to his already weighty bow; along with his regular newspaper writing, his galleries in Sydney and Murrurundi, a book on art collecting and his regular TV slot on Sky Business News, Reid offers eight courses a year on anything from contemporary Indigenous art to 19th century colonial works. Two of these will be weekends at Murrurundi in the Upper Hunter where he attracts 80 people from as far away as Brisbane and Newcastle.

The siting of Michael Reid at Murrurundi — which opened just a year ago — in the colonial hamlet on the New England Highway was both serendipitous and highly calculated. The convict barracks, with original 30 cm deep paving stone floors where the gallery operates, are attached to the 1840s Bobadil House, once owned by Reid’s wife’s great, great grandfather. It was irresistible to the couple to buy and restore. But Murrurundi is also at the heart of wealthy horse, coal and vineyard country, home to legendary properties Belltrees and Ellerston, and along the road from Narrabri, the cotton fields of the Central West. Not a bad place to sell art.

For that’s what the Christie’s-trained ex-criminal lawyer is primarily about. Shows at Murrurundi are mostly of less-expensive art that benefits from both the space and the lower overheads — open only over weekends, but enjoying exposure for up to three months. “I’m doing shows with Hartley Cook,” explained Reid, “because it’s the only place we can show 19th century furniture and contemporary art together. The garden can handle sculpture up to half a tonne, and it’s all online, including videos in situ, so that people can see what an artwork really looks like on the wall.”

Reid intends to double the space in the near future, adding a coffee shop as part of an expansion, which will also include a warehouse in Sydney to mix his own shows with those on a regular roster of galleries visiting from Melbourne and Adelaide. “Always expand in a recession,” was the verdict of Reid’s advisory board. “The trouble with Elizabeth Bay (his current Sydney base) is that I can’t afford to sell anything for less than $10,000. Murrurundi allows me to have shows of younger artists such as Adam Lester and Crispin Akerman or Jasper Knight — who’s just won the Mosman Art Prize — who have their own representation in Sydney ... in other words, be more experimental.”

From mid-October, Michael Reid at Murrurundi will be showing Aboriginal community art from Bentinck Island, Yuendemu and Papunya Tula. In January, there will be a change of focus with a major mixed show that offers a secondary market to paintings by Aussie icons such as Streeton and Whiteley.

For further information visit:

www.michaelreid.com.au

Jasper Knight at Michael Reid Gallery, Murrurundi, 2008, installation shot. Courtesy the artist and gallery.

Jasper Knight at Michael Reid Gallery, Murrurundi, The Spider Tractor, 2008, enamel, masonite and perspex on board, 120 x 120cm. Courtesy the artist and gallery.

Image Top: Michael Reid Gallery, Murrurundi. Courtesy the gallery.