Andy Dinan

  

What did you want to be when you grew up?
One of a kind and an actor.

What did you become?
I became the person I wanted to be and work as a gallery director! I still act a lot.

What's your official title?
Guru to some, therapist to many, counsellor to single friends, mother to three, sometimes lover, yet always Gallery Director of MARS.

What's your background - how did you end up here?
I often ask myself that question (usually as I stare into a glass of red wine after a hard day on the gallery floor).

I began my career as a clown busking on city streets, waiting for an acting break; it never came despite working on lots of television soap operas. I then went to remit night school for some 7 years while working in Australia’s then biggest Public Relations Consultancy I worked for a year in their L.A., USA office then returned and opened my own public relations consultancy which some ten years later I sold to Clemenger and began to study sculpture my true love.

I found I was a shocking sculptor and I was very unhappy with the commercial gallery system so I earnestly began researching commercial galleries and after much planning and study, I naively opened my own gallery some 6 years ago the result is MARS – Melbourne Art Rooms.

As they say if I knew then what I l know now I doubt I would have had the gall to do it.

How would you describe your work to a complete stranger?
Long and hard days that are extremely challenging I feel like I’m always fighting – fighting for the art I want, fighting for more quality arts reporting, fighting for collectors to buy from their heart and not just autographs or what the media tell them and fighting to do the best possible job I can for my artists MARS represents.

What's the first thing career related you usually do each day?
Stare at a beautiful painting opposite my bed – by Saffron Newey

Can you describe an "average" working day for you?
My days are never average I work hard to make sure they are not.

From the Samuel Tupou giant Perspex skull I stare at with the kids as I have my bowl of weeties to the beautiful Emma De Clario painting next to Lucy Griggs gifted drawing that sits above my desk my days are filled with art I love, people I admire and fight for and selling art to collectors who understand the importance of emerging and mid career artists in this country (yes they are out there) that means everything from hanging, lighting, costing and selling a show.

I am very committed to several causes – coats for the homeless which we collect in the gallery every winter and T.L.C a charity for kids that I’m on the advisory board , so in between gallery requirements I jump on to these causes I believe in.

Usually at around 6 pm in between naughty texts over red wine I cook a meal and swap stories with my children and after kissing them firmly and tucking them in I spend a few hours over a hot email and computer, I fall in to bed at 11 pm text a few more times my closest friends then it all starts again at 6 am the next morning.

Who or what in the arts world most inspires you?
I’m inspired by the courage I see in artists they know the odds of failure are high in this profession yet again and again it’s not a career choice for them its something they just must do like breathing.

For me the essential attribute an artist must have is courage.

What's the toughest challenge you've dealt with on the job?
My toughest challenge is finding the art I want to sell – there is so much mediocrity I want great art and it’s hard to find. Art that makes me tingle all over, art that makes me remember the image instantly (even after two red wines) and art that takes me to another place.

Art that is beautifully implemented, contains an intellectual message and is unique is what I search for.

What's the best piece of advice you were ever given for your career?
Never speak without thinking .Wish I had mastered it.

What are the top three skills you need in your particular role?
Sense of humour, time management and diplomacy.

What's the best thing about your job?
I get to hang out with really interesting people surrounded by amazing art.

And the worst?
I sometimes don’t have enough time to hang out with the interesting people and look at the art cause I’m too busy with mundane every day activity like cleaning the floors n hanging the amazing art.

If you had to sum your working life in a word or phrase, what would it be?
Eternal optimist (surely the definition of a commercial gallerist)

Tell us something unique about your gallery in 300 words or less
I prefer to let others talk about MARS , I do love quoting the artist Domenico De Clario (currently showing at MARS) who said of MARS “There is no other commercial gallery I know of doing what these people are doing” and art consultant Ian Rogers who stated “I didn’t think it was possible to create a commercial space like MARS”.

* Andy Dinan – Gallerist likes to kid herself that she inspired this portrait by her favourite rebel artist Hazel Dooney, which includes all her favourite things- the phone, red wine and pink undies. The work is titled “Dangerous Career Babes: The Art Dealer”