Artbank Australia

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Melbourne Client Profile

Kubic Constructions Director Joseph Princi utilises artwork to add character and vitality to the workplace. After a consultant attended his premises and made recommendations he and fellow Director Brett Serratore visited the Melbourne showroom to view the collection first hand. From there they selected works that would make an impact and arouse people’s interest as well as suiting their contemporary office building.

“We have a large Del Kathryn Barton piece in our Boardroom and it always gets conversation started. Not many construction companies would have a large painting of a bunny in their Boardroom!” Atop the credenza next to the Barton is The Philip, a wood carving with attitude by NT based Franck Gohier and further along sits the elegant steel sculpture by April Glaser-Hinder. The sleek black and white reception area is enhanced by a small-in-scale but large-in-impact Karl Wiebke painting on wood dated 1989 – 1997 (yes, they take that long to create!).

Joseph attended the National Gallery of Victoria recently as a guest of Artbank, one of many future educational events that we will be hosting this year. “Artbank has been a great way of familiarising myself with contemporary Australian artists and learning more about them. It has also introduced me to the number of small galleries around town where you can view and/or purchase their work. It was through talking to Artbank and later the staff at Karen Woodbury Gallery that my wife and I thought of commissioning a piece by Lara Merrett for our house.”

They were invited to the artist’s studio where Joseph was impressed by the artist’s candour and down-to-earth attitude. For the novice collector the artist can seem elevated in status to the point of being unapproachable, but Joseph had the opportunity to understand and appreciate more deeply Merrett’s methods and motivations which enriched his relationship with her work. “It was great meeting Lara Merrett and discussing how she goes about creating her works…So often you only see an artist’s work in a gallery and don’t get enough of an explanation on how or why the piece came to be created. It was nice hearing about someone’s passion in person instead of it being written down.”

Eliza Roberts
Art Consultant
Artbank Melbourne Office

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Artist Profile : Engaging with the ANZAC Spirit

ANZAC, produced by Sydney sculptor Will Coles is a response to his grandfather's experiences as a sculptor and soldier. He says: 'What is often forgotten is that those men that made toy soldiers were classically trained artists (like my grandfather). Often they had worn the same uniforms and fought the soldiers they later sculpted (like my grandfather).'

'Now enlarge it to life size and admire the composition, the form, the presence, the history of art inevitably contained in this miniture Michelangelo, these classically Greek plastic soldiers. Then notice the almost complete lack of emotional content, the human as expendable cannon fodder... and concequences of war.'

Coles studied in London and Glasgow before coming to Australia. His grandfather, Norman Stillman, is a sculptor. Coles is best known for his various 'guerilla art' projects around Sydney, including installing his concrete televisons, computers and mobile phone sculptures- with words like 'silence' and 'numb' inscribed in their screens.

Like Will's grandfather, many artists undertook service in the first and second world wars or the Vietnam War. This ANZAC day we would like to acknowledge many of the ex-servicemen represented in the Artbank Collection.

Carrie Kibbler

Assistant Curator, Artbank

They include: