Michael Zavros' art magazine covers

Michael Zavros is on the cover of two Australian art magazines - Art Monthly and Art Collector. The cover images are of photographs from his solo show presented by Starkwhite at this year's edition of Art Basel Hong Kong and produced through a collaboration with world's highest paid model, Sean O'Pry

Art Monthly also contains a 6-page spread on Zavros by QAG|GOMA curator Peter McKay on the artist's new interest in photography and performance where he acts as director working with models, commercial photographers, lighting technicians and make-up artists. McKay also covers Zavros' first foray into performance presented by starkwhite (with Rolls Royce) at the 2014 Melbourne Art Fair. Zavros worked with Australia's superstar models the Stenmark twins, a Rolls Royce Wraith, and an endless supply of MZ-monogrammed chocolates offered as gifts to guests at the vernissage.
Image: covers of the current issues of Art Monthly and Art Collector Art Collector  (top and middle) and a view of Zavros' performance Forty at the 2014 Melbourne Art Fair

Barry Keldoulis talks about the Melbourne Art Fair

Barry Keldoulis, the CEO and Group Fairs Director of Art Fairs Australia, the presenters of Sydney Contemporary and the Melbourne Art Fair (on behalf of the Melbourne Art Foundation), will talk about the upcoming Melbourne Art Fair at Starkwhite at 5pm today. He will cover public and collector programmes, and the three new exhibition sections that have been introduced to this year’s edition of the Melbourne Art Fair - MAF Platform, MAF  Video, and MAF Edge. Curated by Simone Hine and Kyle Weise, the co-founding directors of Screen Space, MAF Video includes Grant Stevens’ Auric Variations.
Image: Barry Keldoulis

Starkwhite at the Melbourne Art Fair

This week we are at the Melbourne Art Fair (Stand B76), which runs from 2-5 August. You can read our release here.

Melbourne may have a new art fair

Bronwyn Johnson's resignation as the CEO and director of the Melbourne Art Fair has been followed by news that Melbourne may have a new art fair. The New Fair has a website announcing that it will open on 3 August 2012, two days after the Melbourne Art Fair, which opens on 1 August.

So far the people behind the new venture are keeping a low profile (they aren't named on the site) but industry insiders are wondering whether it is the same group that floated the idea of an alternative Melbourne art fair a few years ago.

If the new fair goes ahead, it comes at a time when Creative New Zealand has decided to back the Melbourne Art Fair with grants to approved galleries that run with the Fair's recent industry assistance package (half price booths) aimed at boosting New Zealand gallery representation in Melbourne's flagship fair.

Image: Installation view of Seung Yul Oh's project presented by Artspace (Auckland) at the 2010 Melbourne Art Fair

Melbourne Art Fair announces resignation of current director

The Melbourne Art Fair has announced its CEO and director Bronwyn Johnson will be resigning from her role at the end of the year and that a search is underway for her successor.

Seung Yul Oh at the Melbourne Art Fair

Seung Yul Oh was one of two artists (the other being Campbell Patterson) exhibited by Artspace in the Project Rooms at the Melbourne Art Fair, which closed on Sunday. Art spaces selected for the Fair are provided with an exhibition space and a monetary grant from the Melbourne Art Foundation, which also funds a work for the Fair to be gifted to an Australian institution. This year's commission by Jon Campbell was gifted to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.

Image: visitor with Seung Yul Oh's work at the Melbourne Art Fair, August 2010

Seung Yul Oh at the Melbourne Art Fair

The Melbourne Art Fair programme includes Project Rooms for curators and artspaces to profile the work of artists in a series of spaces in and around the Royal Exhibition Building. Artspace (Auckland) is presenting a project by Seung Yul Oh in one of its allocated rooms and is the sole New Zealand flag-bearer in this year's lineup of Project Room galleries. We'll post images of Seung Yul Oh's room next week.

Image: Seung Yul Oh, Globglob, 2010, fibreglass and two-pot automotive paint

Melbourne Art Foundation Artist Commission

The Melbourne Art Fair opens next week. One of the highlights will be the Melbourne Art Foundation 2010 Commission, which has gone to Jon Campbell for Stacks On. Campbell's winning work is a collection of stacked light boxes featuring different signage and 12 fabric banners designed to hang from the ceiling under the dome of the exhibition building. The Foundation will gift the work to an Australian public art institution and the recipient will be revealed during the fair.

Image: Jon Campbell with some of his light boxes. Photograph by Rodger Cummins, from the Sydney Morning Herald