Meet our Guest with Adam Stone

Fruit & Veg & Parodies, Lauren Dunn at LON Gallery 2019. Image courtesy of LON Gallery.

For this story of Meet the Guest, Guest Work Agency Director and Founder Alana Kushnir interviewed Adam Stone, artist and Director of LON, a promising gallery addition to the Melbourne arts scene with a strong curatorial focus.

LON Gallery began as a project space in 2016 based on a unique non-profit model that primarily supported emerging artists. The gallery established a formal program in 2019, which provided the opportunity to work with a select number of artists in depth and to foster the critical development of their practices. The gallery represents a small number of Australian artists and operates out of its premises in Collingwood.

You’re an artist who also runs a gallery, a combination of roles that has a long history, particularly in the Melbourne art scene. How and where did you start?

I studied at the VCA (Victorian College of the Arts) here in Melbourne. In my undergraduate degree I made photo-based work but then in my year of Honours, my practice shifted somewhat to more sculptural work. After I graduated I undertook two residencies, one in Beijing and one in new York. That opened my eyes to the different ways galleries function and how different galleries overseas operate compared to here in Melbourne.

Did you always see yourself as opening a gallery?

When I returned from my residencies in 2015 I was disenchanted by the longstanding artist-run space model used by a number of grass-roots galleries in Melbourne (where artists have to pay to exhibit their work). Even though there is this “rental gallery” model, it is still difficult to have your work exhibited in these spaces – you have to put forward a proposal. At the same time, there were a few other galleries starting up with a similar ethos to mine. I wanted to provide a platform for artists – primarily emerging artists – to exhibit their work rent free, and we would actively try to create opportunities for these artists through creating connections with the art community and through sales of their work.

How did you meet the artists you have since shown?

It happened quite organically. I started the gallery with a friend of mine who I met at arts school and we showed some of our peers – people that we knew through our networks and also people that we admired. A number of high profile galleries had shut at that time, so that gave us an opportunity to also work with some artists who were a little more established. Towards the end of 2018 I was at a crossroads. The gallery was a huge financial, emotional and time commitment, so with the help of the Australian government’s New Enterprise Initiative Scheme I was able to restructure my life, quit my three casual jobs and commit to LON full time. I took the gallery to the next level by beginning to work with a core group of artists who I had got to know through the previous two years of running the gallery on a more formal representation basis.

XTFO, Caleb Shea at LON Gallery 2019. Image courtesy of LON Gallery.

We first met when LON first participated in Spring1883 at the Windsor Hotel in 2018 – an art fair which showcases different galleries in rooms of one of Melbourne’s oldest functioning heritage hotels. How important do you think it is now for Australian galleries to be showing in spaces that go beyond their own physical gallery space?

I think it’s really important. Most of my decisions as a gallerist begin with myself as an artist, as my first reference point. I ask myself, ‘What would I want as an artist?’ It is certainly more difficult than it used to be to get physical visitors through a permanent gallery space. Having the opportunity to also show at an art fair, where thousands of people come to see artists’ work in a short space of time is hugely beneficial. Of course, there’s the sales component, but the most important opportunity such platforms provide is exposure to new audiences.

Can you tell us about the core group of artists that you work with?

At the moment I represent 4 artists. Last year was the first year of working with this core group of artists and I’m really excited to be extending that core list and working with new artists in 2020. I work with Caleb Shea who makes sculptural works. I refer to him as a neo formalist artist because while he works with the history of formalist sculpture, he injects a very playful energy into the forms.

Grace Wood is an exciting young artist working in photography who I studied with. She is making a lot of photo-collage work inspired by online visual culture. She’s also beginning to make work for outside the white cube gallery setting – such as a project with Photo 2020 – a new large-scale photo festival in Melbourne which opens in April – and a public commission work with the City of Stonnington council.

Dord Burrough is a process-based abstract painter who makes extraordinary work, sometimes at a small scale with a sculptural, thicker pallet and other times with much larger works which are more pared back, but equally captivating.

I work with Lauren Dunn, a recent VCA graduate making photo-based work of exceptional quality for such a young artist. She is really pushing the conceptual aspect of her practice and the capacity of images. She is extending her practice into photographic wall sculptures, free-standing works and traditional framed-type c-prints. We will be showing her work as part of Photo 2020.

Dord Burrough, Bar and Grill at LON Gallery 2019.

What other plans do you have for 2020?

The most exciting thing this year is that the gallery will be shifting into a larger space in the same building here in Collingwood and doubling in size. That’s going to provide the artists with more space to work with, which will hopefully energise their practices. There will be a mixture of shows by the gallery’s artists, as well as other invited artists and two curated shows. The curated shows is quite important to me, as when I started I was excited by the opportunity to have these curated exhibitions. My curatorial style is quite playful, so I do like to contextualise the gallery artists and the gallery’s program with group exhibitions.

What would your advice be for those that are new to buying art?

Use the resources out there – like Art Guide Australia and Guest Work’s Guest Club – to familiarise yourself with some of the artists and spaces that are in Melbourne. I know finding time is often hard but look at art. Engage with it. See what you like. Speak to the gallerists. There is artwork you can buy as a good financial investment, but it is really important to buy work that speaks to you personally as well.

LON Gallery re-opens for the 2020 season on Thursday 13 February at 21 Easey Street, Collingwood, Victoria, Australia.