The Work

Tennis court depicted as geometric puzzle where standardised dimensions become platform for serial abstraction. Wood began photographing the TV screen during televised matches with the lights off, loving how it looked, space experienced as image-mediated through television rather than physical presence. Forms not rendered spatially; under-painted with big flat shapes of colour, generated from an abundance of flat planes built up on top of each other. White lines demarcating the court's organised composition and viewpoint, held together by the graphic appeal of rectilinear geometry. Courtsides distinguished by iconic colours and identifying corporate signage transmuted into the artist's own visual shorthand, complex scenes pared down to saturated blocks and simplified shapes. Neither players nor spectators are shown, or drastically simplified; the vacant court functions as an uncanny contemporary landscape emptied of human presence. Interest lies in composition, abstraction, and repetition, floating tennis balls and graphic elements creating visual back-and-forth energy, as in the heat of the match.

Artist Position

ESTABLISHED. Born in Boston in 1977, MFA in Painting from the University of Washington in 2002, lives in Los Angeles. Work held at MoMA NY, Whitney Museum, Hammer Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and Saatchi Gallery London. Known for intricate still lifes and domestic interior scenes that combine basketballs, ceramics, and lush plants with collaged compositions that reference personal life and art historical precedents. Dallas Museum of Art solo (2019). Draws from art history, memory, people, objects, and interiors to compose the fabric of his life. References David Hockney, Henri Matisse, Alex Katz through bright palettes, detailed patterns, flattened forms.

Market Intelligence

Auction record USD6.51 million "Two Tables with Floral Pattern" Christie's 2021, exceeded the estimate three times. Seven-figure auction results consistently achieved. Active secondary market with strong institutional bidding. The tennis court series is particularly sought after as it reflects Wood's interest in abstraction, the geometric puzzle of court composition, and text through advertising. Represented David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, and Anton Kern Gallery, New York. Primary market paintings command six-figure prices.

Collection Rationale

Strategic acquisition from LA-based painter bridging Analytic Cubism and Contemporary Pop Art. The tennis court series demonstrates a signature approach, compressing three-dimensional space onto a flat surface with chromatic emphasis while balancing abstraction with recognisable subject matter. Complements collections focused on contemporary painting, engaging sports imagery, California artists, or works referencing Pop Art traditions. Natural adjacency to collectors holding Ed Ruscha, Alex Katz, Wayne Thiebaud. Scale (167.6×152.4cm) is substantial enough for institutional-quality presence while remaining accessible for serious private collections. Timing is favourable as the tenth David Kordansky exhibition (first LA-based), prior to the Academy Awards ceremony, elevates cultural visibility.

The Work

Meticulously rendered scene combining familiar with unfamiliar, capturing tension between real and imagined to create a slightly awkward moment. Circumstantial details of decor and architectural forms, outfits and poses portraying mid-century glamour, brush out the veneer of normalcy, yet underlying neuroses and dramatic conflicts still haunt the scene. Strange and suspenseful dream-like quality derived from the unusual use of perspectives, the superimposition of images, and the borrowing of disparate sources. Sexual and social confusion, vulnerability and violence, alienation and loneliness, feelings of abject, fantasies of power and revenge tap into the shared psyche, drawing upon the language of pop culture. Paintings, at times, are difficult to look at yet exude an uncanny ability to deny narrative satisfaction while satisfying visual habits.

Artist Position

ESTABLISHED. Born in Brisbane in 1970, BA Visual Arts Queensland University of Technology 1990, Master's Degree Slade School of Fine Art, London 1995. Work held at the National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, and the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Won Samstag Scholarship (1993), Melville Nettleship Award Slade (1995), Sulman Prize Art Gallery of NSW (1999). Regularly exhibited since 1993 with Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, now lives in Melbourne and exhibits at Kalli Rolfe Gallery, Melbourne. Imagery described as "deeply engaging, often slightly disturbing and always difficult to read," earning comparisons to Balthus, Magritte, Max Beckmann, Vermeer, and Giorgio de Chirico.

Market Intelligence

Auction record USD16,897 (AUD24,545) "Sour the Boiling Honey" Menzies 2022. Range USD789-16,897 across 17 auction appearances since 2008, sell-through rate 80%. Modest but stable secondary market, primarily through Australian houses, Menzies, Bonhams, and Sotheby's Melbourne. Primary market through established Sydney/Melbourne gallery representation. Influenced by Queensland architecture, the time period 1920s-1980s, mid-century American novels and films.

Collection Rationale

Strategic acquisition from an established Australian painter working in figurative realism with disturbing psychological undercurrents. Wallace's meticulous oil technique, combined with unsettling narrative ambiguity, creates works operating between surface convention and deeper disquiet. Complements collections focused on contemporary Australian painting, figurative work engaging cinematic aesthetics, or artists exploring psychological tension through realist techniques. Natural adjacency to collectors holding Euan Macleod, Nicholas Harding, Michael Zavros. Substantial scale (152.5×183cm) commands wall presence while meticulously rendered details reward close viewing. Timing is favourable, as an established career with major institutional holdings provides market stability, while modest auction results suggest it is undervalued relative to its technical sophistication and critical recognition.

The Work

Playful composition of mysterious symbols and cultural references reflecting how reality and fiction shape perceptions. Drawing from art history, Frans Snyders "The Boar Hunt" (c.1650), Henri Rousseau's "The War" (1894), Bennett reinterprets dramatic relationships between humans, dogs, movement through vibrant colours, and familiar forms. Colonial introduced objects contrast with elements of chaos and tranquillity, complemented by native flora and fauna as symbols of hope and renewal. Unique brushwork combines a vibrant palette with layered imagery, resulting in compositions oscillating between chaos and harmony. Personal memories intertwine with historical narratives and abstraction, inviting viewers to uncover hidden meanings beneath the surface.

Artist Position

EMERGING. BFA National Art School 2015, Honours Fine Art with First Class Honours, Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney University 2016. Dean's Choice Award honours year painting SCA (2016), John McCaughey Prize, Graduate Student, National Art School (2015). Finalist Georges River Art Prize, Hurstville Museum, Sydney (2023). Recent exhibitions: "Open House" SODA + AHNESS Adelaide (2023), "No Punchline" Peach Black Gallery Chippendale (2022), "While We're Still Here" Ambush Gallery Canberra/Waterloo (2021). First solo exhibition "Beyond Darkness" CASSANDRA BIRD Sydney (forthcoming 2026), following group presentation (2023).

Market Intelligence

Primary through CASSANDRA BIRD, Sydney and Edwina Corlette, Brisbane. Emerging artist with strong institutional support through awards and competitive exhibition placements. Growing visibility within Sydney contemporary art circuit. Limited exhibition history suggests an early career stage with upward trajectory potential.

Collection Rationale

Strategic acquisition from an emerging Australian painter engaging art historical lineage through a contemporary lens. Bennett's approach, intertwining personal memories from a rural upbringing with references to Old Masters, creates rich dialogue that operates across temporal and cultural boundaries. Complements collections focused on emerging Australian talent, figurative painters engaging art history, or works exploring the intersection between colonial narratives and native landscape. Natural adjacency to collectors holding Ben Quilty, Tim Maguire, and Lucy Culliton. Timing is favourable as CASSANDRA BIRD exhibitions position work for broader critical attention before the secondary market establishes pricing benchmarks.

The Work

Large-scale oil painting coalesces figuration and abstraction to conjure spaces where the artist communes with the deceased and contends with future loss. Figures materialise from layered, loose, gestural mark-making that merge in and out of surrounding environments, taking form through thick impasto marks alongside thin washes and surface stains. Animals wander peripheries, simultaneously observing departures and transformations taking place. Linking imagery of the Australian Outback, Hauntology, contemplations of afterlife beliefs, highlighting myth-making and rituals surrounding mourning, celebration, and commemoration. Operating as a visual love letter and an epitaph addressing the mother's second terminal cancer diagnosis.

Artist Position

EMERGING TO MID. Born in Australia in 1992, BFA Honours (First Class) Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne 2016, MFA Hunter College, NYC, December 2022, lives in New York. Recent solo "An Echo, A Prayer" COMA Gallery, Marrickville, Sydney (2026), "Choral Ode" COMA (2023). Practice explores painting's ability to hold memory against the passage of time, preserve beyond the limits of language. Works described as operating in the space of intimate grief, binding people together through ritual aspects of prayer.

Market Intelligence

Exclusively primary through COMA Gallery Sydney. Recent MFA graduate transitioning from emerging to mid-career recognition. Growing critical attention through emotionally resonant exhibitions addressing universal themes of loss and mortality. Australian-based representation with NYC residency positions work for dual-market exposure.

Collection Rationale

Strategic acquisition from an Australian-born, NYC-based painter addressing universal human experience of grief, loss, mortality through a formally sophisticated approach combining gestural abstraction with apparitional figuration. Estée's practice links Australian landscape traditions with contemporary explorations of Hauntology and afterlife contemplations, creating works that function as eternal statements outliving the subjects they commemorate. Complements collections focused on contemporary Australian painters working internationally, artists addressing themes of memory and loss, or works exploring the intersection between personal narrative and universal experience. Natural adjacency to collectors holding Lena Nyadbi, Jenny Watson, and Yvette Coppersmith. Large scale (157×200cm) commands presence while gestural mark-making and layered surfaces reward sustained viewing. Timing is favourable as the second COMA solo following MFA graduation positions work for broader institutional attention.