Open House @ Artitja Fine Art

Wall to Wall – House to House

A comment by a visitor to the South Fremantle home of owners Anna Kanaris and Arthur Clarke of Artitja Fine Art in 2003 changed the course of their lives. “Walking into this house is like walking into an art gallery”, the visitor said.

Without realising it the couple had inadvertently turned their home into an art gallery which eight years later has become one of Perth’s leading Indigenous art galleries exhibiting work from remote and regional Australia.

“We didn’t mean to turn our home into an art gallery – it just evolved into one” explained Artitja Director Anna Kanaris. “After a trip to the central desert in the mid 90s we began collecting art and developing relationships with artists – increasing our knowledge, and covering our walls. We began fulfilling numerous requests from friends to source quality art from the area and word got around. Our client base grew and grew and now includes interstate and international patrons.”

We don’t just sell art, we focus very much on the culture and feel we have a responsibility to educate the public, knowing that for us it is a great privilege to be allowed into the artist’s lives and their communities” Kanaris explains.

In 2006 we began representing Nyoongah bush-sculptor Janine McAullay Bott who has since become one of Australia’s top Indigenous fibre textile artists in the country, with her work now a feature of top private collections and public institutions, the most recent the National Gallery of Victoria”, says Kanaris. “To be able to assist in Janine’s career path has been a great achievement”

Janine’s pieces are featured in the Beyond Garment exhibition opening at the Maritime Museum in Fremantle on the 3rd September, and her work will also be a part of our home show.

In order to reach a wide audience, Artitja Fine Art also hold public exhibitions up to four times a year at Earlywork in South Terrace, South Fremantle home of Spice magazine in the Old Biscuit Factory.

Open house @ artitja fine art will be open 11am – 5pm Saturday and Sunday 4th and 5th September, attendance is by enquiry to Anna on 9336 7787 or 0418 900 954.