Since his return to Sydney after nearly fifteen years in New York and Europe, Barry Keldoulis has worked in the museum and commercial gallery worlds, and in 2003 decided to open his own gallery to fill a gap in opportunity for young artists to exhibit between artist-run spaces and the major commercial galleries. He chose the transitional City of Sydney neighbourhood of Chippendale, where practically every week a new café or restaurant opens.
From his boss and mentor Henry Geldzahler, Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the City of New York and the first Curator of Twentieth Century Art at the Metropolitan Museum, Barry has adopted the maxim “Art is what Artists Make”, and, he says of the work he exhibits, this is what they are making now. Since Duchamp there exists the capacity for art to be something more intellectual than aesthetic, but his preference is for work that combines the two.
From the Baroque inspired painterly photographs of Sarah Smuts-Kennedy to the photo-based paintings of Paul Wrigley and Jess MacNeil ( the pop-culture imagery of the former purloined off the net; the latter’s work tenuously reconstructing memories from personal snaps) to the light sculptures of young urban Indigenous artist Jonathan Jones, Gallery Barry Keldoulis seeks to present a diverse range of contemporary art created by the best of the emerging generation. The aforementioned artists the gallery represents, while the programme draws widely on artists from overseas and around Australia.
Artists Represented
Gordon Bennett John Citizen Sean Cordeiro and Claire Healy Debra Dawes Richard Dunn Jonathan Jones Jitish Kallat Deborah Kelly Fiona Lowry Jess MacNeil Hitesh Natalwala Joan Ross Grant Stevens Daniel Templeman
