Artereal has a reputation as an incubator gallery and for spotting and nurturing early talent.  We seek artists, that having mastered techniques, magick with, defy, elaborate and extend conventional practice or its ways of presentation.

Discovering artists is very much a combination of gut, eye, happenstance; of mining artist networks and an awful lot of looking at art, studio visits, attending exhibition openings, grad shows and coffee meet ups.

Over the last almost two decades, we have met artists through a myriad of often chance moments. People ask us all the time – how do you find your artists? It is almost an impossible question to answer, as there is no one way. But two memorable instances come to mind…

Anna Carey’s atmospheric, nostalgic, cryptic architectural photo-media images developed from fictive miniature models are in major Australian institutional collections, in US corporate collections and the prestigious Los Angeles County Museum of Art [LACMA]. I first met the very young, recently graduated, Gold Coast artist in 2011 at an Artists’ Speed Dating in association with an Art Month event at The Ivy in Sydney. Artists had two minutes to pitch themselves and their work individually to invited gallerists. Anna was a stand-out for me and we have proudly represented her at Artereal since.

“Discovering artists and allowing them to realise their potential is greatly rewarding and exciting.” 

– Barbara Dowse

I happened on Yioryios Papayioryiou’s works at an ANU Art School Grad Show in 2014. Taken with his then quite small aluminium sculptures responding to the sensory perception of architectural space, I acquired four very accessibly priced works for my own collection and recommended him to my Artereal colleagues. Soon after joining Artereal and his first exhibition, he was commissioned for a large-scale steel sculpture for the ANZ head office in Melbourne, followed by public art commissions for the M4 Motorway precinct, Paramatta Square 4 and a five start hotel in Parramatta.  In recent years while continuing to exhibit at Artereal, Yioryios has developed a studio in Athens to forge an international profile as both sculptor and installation artist.

Discovering artists and allowing them to realise their potential is greatly rewarding and exciting. I especially value and cherish the bonus of personal and long-lasting relationships developed with so many of the artists I have the privilege to know and work with.

After 19 years, Artereal Gallery closed in March 2025. This article is part of the gallery’s ‘On Reflection’ series of essays.