The Art Gallery exhibition opening

The Art Gallery exhibition opened Friday 19 October 2018, in the heart of arty Paddington, Sydney. The three artists (Salleigh Olsen, Jane Hansen and Carla Filipe) took part in a collaborative exhibition exploring themes of femininity, creation, colour, and energy.

In May 2018, the artist Salleigh Olsen and I decided to stage an exhibition of our work, somewhere prominent in Sydney. We came upon a space that we loved that is part of the Verona Cinema Complex in Paddington. Its a pop-up gallery that has housed prominent Sydney artists, like Archibald winner Craig Ruddy. The space had great street frontage and plenty of foot traffic. What also attracted us to the space was that it’s an artist run space, and we could set the tone on how to manage and promote this exhibition ourselves.

We all worked tirelessly on the installation of the gallery for about 4 days prior to opening night. It was so exhausting, but its amazing how much energy you find when you are creating your dream and following your passion. I don’t think I have ever worked on adrenaline for this long period of time. And how exhilarating! It was all hands on deck as we prepared the space, organised the sound for the night, brought all our artworks, planned the catering, the lighting, the signage, artwork labels, and so on. We would not have been able to fulfill this so quickly without our army of helpers, our families and friends who worked so generously. For long stressful hours we toiled, all of us to make the Art Gallery exhibition and opening night, the success that it was.

We had an estimate of over 300 people turn up to the opening night – friends, family, work colleagues, and of course patrons that came off the street. The opening night included dancers from The Sydney Dance Company performing around the guests within the gallery, as they mingled, chatted, sipped wine and viewed the artworks. The show was opened by Bruce Munro, a classically trained vocalist, who also performed a selection of classical songs.

The night could not have been the success that it was if it wasn’t for our lovely sponsors. They included the Sydney Dance Company, Casoni, 2Signify, QED – Artisan Wine Merchant, and Bruce Munro.

The Art Gallery exhibition was opened for two weeks, with the closing day being Sunday 4 November 2018. During these two weeks, we were grateful for the many visitors we had, and for the many sales that occurred for all the artists. It was an amazing success, and a magical launch of my recent work.