Plain White Walls

I've been searching for at least the past year to find some Australian art. I've haven't found anything that has really caught my eye and I've been searching quite a bit. I'll stop in random galleries and have even come across a few auction houses (to be honest though I was looking for wine auctions). I haven't had much luck outside of the weird face sculpture I won at a charity auction.



It's got a funny story behind it an it is growing in me, but I'm still looking.

I was searching an auction catalog and came across a piece that I liked quite a bit. So I wandered in (out of place) to the auction with my max bid that I would go up to. I was hopeful that since it was one of the first lots that people would stay away from early bids to keep their wallets full for later in the auction. There were probably 50 people in the room as it was starting (with over 300 lots going on the block) I was hopeful. Most people were older so I was hoping they wouldn't go for the contemporary art at auction. I grabbed my number, found my assigned seat and turned down the booze to prevent another face sculpture and waited. The lot I wanted came up and most previous lots had gone for less than their estimated value so I was even more hopeful. The auctioneer opened the bidding, my heart racing, stuck to my eBay tactic of not jumping in early. Well, in a matter of seconds, this piece was well over twice what my max bid was going to be. A bit defeated, I stuck around for a few more lots as there were some lower priced lots that I liked, just not as much. There was another work by the same artist but i didn't like it as much as the first and thankfully it went over my max, though only by two bids. I came away empty handed, but started searching for works by this artist.

Fast forward, I was in Melbourne this past weekend for a Ryan Adams concert. It was a great solo show where he even played some old Whiskeytown songs. Something I didn't think he did, ever. As I was searching for info on Adam Cullen, the artist, I found a small boutique hotel in Melbourne called The Cullen. Turns out this company has built three hotels based on the art of three important Australian artists. So I immediately booked The Cullen. The whole hotel is built around the art. The architecture of the hotel even matches the feel of the pieces, funky, modern with clean lines. The lobby has a bunch of originals and in the halls and rooms there are prints everywhere of his works.

I snapped a few pictures from around the hotel and after staying there I'm on a mission to find an original.






























I've done some research looking for pieces and have a few potential leads. I also found out that the artist was the Archibald Award winner in 2000 which is apparently one of Australia's top art awards. If anyone had any tips on how to go about commissioning a piece of art, let me know. I'm hoping to find a contact info from a gallery to see if that will work.