黑料不打烊

The first time I met Andy Dinan I knew I was in for a great art adventure. A friend had recommended me for a job at the soon to launch MARS Gallery and I met Andy on a blustery late summer afternoon in 2005, at a park bench near Bay Street, Port Melbourne. She was decked out in sharp black apparel with black sunglasses tucked into her black windswept hair. She looked very glamorous and very Melbourne. What immediately captivated me was Andy鈥檚 face lit up like a little girl鈥檚 at Christmas time, and her eyes wide with excitement. While Andy sure looked the part of demure Melbourne gallerist, she wasn鈥檛 like anything I had come to expect. I honestly can鈥檛 remember anything we talked about, except that I knew I wanted to be part of this adventure. 

Andy walked me through MARS Gallery that day, still a week from opening. The doublestory warehouse shell on Bay Street was a hive of activity. Workmen were everywhere, painting walls, installing lighting, assembling a new counter for the gallery caf茅 鈥� a first for a commercial gallery in Melbourne. But this was no ordinary commercial gallery 鈥� this was 鈥楳ARS鈥� (Melbourne Art Rooms), and Andy Dinan was about to turn an industry on its head. As we walked and talked, with Andy barely able to stop herself from bouncing off the walls, I was struck also by the beauty of the spaces, and how much thought had gone into them. I recognised the fingerprints of Maudie Palmer, Andy鈥檚 good friend and the inaugural Director of Heide Museum of Modern Art, where I myself had worked those past few years. MARS had the same attention to detail, and the same immaculate quality.