Barry Keldoulis

The Art Life's readership voted GBK most influential Sydney gallery in 2007. What was it about your shows that garnered that kind of response?
Sometimes it looks like it's instantaneous recognition and respect, and although most of my artists are quite young, they have been working hard for a number of years, and their lines of enquiry are starting to pay off. The work is intriguing, interesting, in some cases aesthetically pleasing. But they're basically hitting the nail on the head in a number of ways, if you like, in terms of contemporary art being  a marriage of ideas and aesthetics. They're all doing very interesting stuff. Because there's a wide range of styles they appeal across the board. One or another will please a lot of people, and there was a succession of strong shows.

When you select your artists, do you do it like a football scout, looking for people who have been over looked, as well as the "number one draft picks"? Or is it more about building a personal relationship with people whose work you're interested in - a process more like patronage?
I tend to look for artists rather than art. In the end, there's a lot of people who want to be artists - it's almost become like an occupation. People used to want to be a fireman or a doctor, a lot of people want to be artist now. But the desire to be an artist doesn't necessarily make you one. I look for the artist in the person first, and if they're the real McCoy, it's in them and it's got to come out. And as long as they're true to their instincts, and stick to their guns, and aren't interested in following fashion or trying to seek out what they think people want, usually the world will come to them. Most of my artists I've known for a while, and I've watched them developed, and when I know they're the real McCoy, that's when I get interested in showing them.

What does that person look like? What's the difference between a wannabe and a real artist?
Oh they're mad as hatters generally. Ego maniacs. Usually, there's an intensity to their relationship with their art that they appreciate quite quickly. It's not about exposure and fame, and instantaneous success. There's a sincerity to their enquiry, and a passion about what they're creating. In a sense, it's almost as if the works are their babies, and they're passionate about it. I also look for work that isn't the Australian version of something going on overseas, that isn't the fashion internationally or even in Australia, but work that's pursuing a new way of seeing.

GBK has a reputation for finding and showing good video artists in particular. Does that get harder as the form becomes more popular, and there's a glut to select from?
I don't think it's any harder than finding a good painter. In fact as there is more video art around, it gets easier, because you're not so seduced by the medium itself. It's the work inside the medium. It's easier to pick the artists who are just fascinated by the technology, as opposed to those producing genuine, aesthetic work.

How have you accommodated new media work in the new gallery space?
We're going to live with the space for a while before we decide exactly how we're going to create a permanent way to display new media. It may take the form of a small screening room; it might also be a more flexible area we can close off.

Do you think people generally haven't quite worked out how to display video art, and particularly how to display it at home?
The advent of the mega flatscreen has helped a lot of people cope with the idea of video art and how to display it. We get a lot of clients now who say "we're having people over, but we don't want this big black rectangle on the wall. So they're buying the more meditative, sometimes more intriguing, non-narrative video works, that become a conversation starter or point of interest in the home, rather like more traditional painting always has been.

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