art galleries were in attendance all of whom received plenty of visitors and sold large numbers of works. Urban Uprising Gallery was the first of the street/urban art galleries whose stand I passed on the last day of the show and it was clear that they were experiencing a very successful show with a total of 28 works sold at last count with limited edition prints by Banksy, Pure Evil, Trademark and Galo proving extremely popular. The Famous When Dead Gallery stand exhibited slightly more edgy and even less mainstream street/urban art but still drew in the crowds and sold 8 works from their small stand space. By far the most interesting of the urban/street art stands was that of artist Doug Bartlett who also displayed work by Dave Bowers, Nick Morris,Ben Frost, Adrian Doyle, Ears to the Ground and Missing Link. I hadn’t taken much notice of the Doug Bartlett stand on the first day I attended the fair but on the Sunday the stand was packed with people and covered in red dots. A total of 30 works had sold when I last passed the Doug Bartlett stand on the Sunday afternoon and sales were still being made with several hours until the fair closed.
So, overall the fair seemed to have been a great success with plenty of great art on show and plenty of sales made. If the success of Art Melbourne 09 is anything to go by the market for contemporary Australian art is still strong especially for top quality works. Now that I have experienced how good a Single Market Events fair can be I can only hope that Art Sydney 09 in October will be just as good. Fingers crossed.
**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.
