Montville Artspace

Montville Artspace

I cannot say I have been to many commercial art galleries let alone one in a small town in the QLD hinterlands, but the Montville Artspace seemed to be pretty new, there was no proper signage on the building, and there was a lot of work sitting around the gallery edges waiting to be displayed, but I was still quite impressed with what I found with the range of work and interesting artist’s being represented there, and the Art Gallery Director Christopher De Lisle was more than happy to take the time to talk to me about the work displayed at the gallery and any other questions about the space.

There were many typical pieces displayed that you would expect to find at a Gallery in a place like Montville, animal statues made from local wood or metals, and landscape photography, but what really interested me was the collection of contemporary work that took up almost half the gallery wall space by local Noosa artist Dean Reilly, and a collection of “new age” Indigenous art by Tarisse King local VIC Indigenous Australian artist. When I had asked about what sort of stuff they like to display and how that generally works out Chris informed me that the classics are very popular, the oldies love to come and look at the classic style paintings but because they have typically been collecting pieces for many years they do not have the space for more so they do not sell as well as the contemporary work.

When I first walked in I instantly walked to the back to look at the colourful and interesting paintings by Dean Reilly. His paintings are the sort of work that is very interesting to people (especially those with the space for it). Not all of his pieces where hung yet, and some were sitting on the floor waiting to go up in the empty spot, but this was not really a deterrent. Dean had a pretty interesting style, with great variation and design. A lot of the work I saw had writing of some sort that seemed to be his thoughts on an idea scrawled around the piece. It was apparent that he did not paint “a type” of thing or “a style” of anything in particular but he would simply “paint an idea” he likes his art to be wild and Ludacris, wanting it to incite reaction in the viewers. I think the best thing about Dean’s work was the fact that his paintings are very affordable in comparison to a lot of work you may see in galleries these days, with many different sizes ranging from around $600 to $3000.

Tarisse King on the other hand a young Indigenous Australian artist from South Australia, had a few paintings displayed, that were also very interesting to me. Tarisse has a style that draws upon the Central and Western Desert Aboriginal dotting style of painting the land typography that she has experimented with style and design to create unique works. Her paintings show large expanses of Australian land as if looking at it from outer space. Her travels between Darwin (where she lived as a child), Katherine and Adelaide are often depicted in most of her paintings in such beautiful ways that her paintings seemed to resinate with me. Compared to Dean Reilly’s work, Tarisse’s paintings are very heftily priced in comparison, but that does not affect the popularity, with the gallery already having sold a couple of her paintings.

Over all it was a very nice visit to the Montville Artspace, and I was very glad that Chris was able to take the time to talk to me a bit about how the gallery works (even taking down my details to send me more information about the artist’s), and what types of pieces do well in this commercial gallery (even though it was an unscheduled visit). I only wish I had more time to talk with him about the gallery and the artist’s he displays.