From Andrew Frost…
Gary Grealy set himself one of the most difficult projects a photographer can conceive of – to take a series of portraits of well known senior artists. Grealy took portraits of James Gleeson and Robert Klippel in 1993, Martin Sharp in ’94 and Charles Blackman in ’95. With those famous heads on the photographic trophy wall the rest of the planned series took an unexpectedly long time to arrange. Artists are often mercurial characters and the people around them protective. Undeterred, Grealy hatched on another idea – while the portraits of artists might take much longer to gather than expected, there were other people worthy of recording – the gallerists, philanthropists, collectors and lovers and many others who make up the art ‘world’.
And so, after more than a decade of patient planning Grealy finally unveils his Art Maker, Patron, Lover show, a collection of portraits of the faces of the art world including gallery directors Edmund Capon, Gene Sherman, Frank Watters and Geoffrey Legge, and mega collectors/philanthropists such as Patrick Corrigan, Brian Sherman, and John Kaldor. But the true essence of the exhibition are Grealy’s portraits of artists, from the classical countenance of Kevin Conner and in-situ studio pose of Peter Kingston to the younger generation of artists shot in colour such as images of Guy Maestri and Alexander McKenzie, to emerging artist Megan. Grealy’s images are intimate and unaffected with a minimum of ‘pose’ – and despite whatever difficulties he may have encountered capturing them, these faces present a record of the art world, as is.
Until July 12
Mosman Art Gallery, Mosman
Pic: Gary Grealy, McLean Edwards, Artist (detail) 2007.
When I worked in advertising (1985-2008), Gary Grealy’s name was synonymous with great portrait photography. He was the man you went to for great people shots. I had the pleasure of working with him over the years on several campaigns, but the highlight of our working relationship was a session we had one day in which he experimented using a distorting piece of plexiglass (like a carnival mirror) for which I was the model. One of the best afternoons I had in his studio. Years later I started seeing his name pop up in major art awards and was very happy for him. Truly one of the nicest, coolest, and artful people behind a camera.