AMBER WALLIS AT MELBOURNE ART FAIR PREVIEWED IN ‘VAULT’

For Nicholas Thompson, Melbourne Art Fair represents a new commitment to a long-held curatorial vision: to give a single artist a platform to explore a distinct body of ideas. Although the group presentation, along with the VIP lounge, has become part of the lingua franca of art fair culture, Thompson believes that a solo exhibition can give viewers an insight into the inner workings of an art gallery.

“Art fairs are so important – they’re how you reach people who may not feel the pressure to go to art galleries,” he says. “At Melbourne Art Fair, I hope to introduce the artists I represent to new audiences. I prefer to present solo exhibitions at the gallery and I try to extend this to the art fairs I participate in.”

This year, Thompson will present new work by Amber Wallis. The mid-career artist, who relocated from Melbourne to the Byron Bay hinterlands, makes raw, semi-abstract paintings. Her swirling brushstrokes evoke female sexuality, the sublime blankness of landscape and lately, the pull of domestic intimacy and interior space.

“Forms and figures depicted or suggested are obscured and eventually abstracted, in a complex archive built up within each painting,” explains Thompson, who plans to present Arryn Snowball at Sydney Contemporary later in the year. “Amber’s works will sit together as a suite, creating an atmospheric installation. The works have been painted on raw linen. They have an inherent narrative quality that will allow them to be read as a story.”