Bronwyn Rennex

  

What did you want to be when you grew up?
A photojournalist or a singer.

What did you become?
A Gallery Director

What's your official title?
Co-Director of Stills Gallery, with Kathy Freedman.

What's your background - how did you end up here?
I studied Mass Communications and Visual Arts and followed a crooked but interesting career path to find Stills. I started exhibiting as an artist at the gallery.

How would you describe your work to a complete stranger?
Working with artists to coordinate the exhibition and promotion of their works. That can encompass everything from providing feedback on ideas and images, writing press releases, talking to clients about work, keeping edition records - you name it x 20 or so artists….you have to think in different timeframes all at once – the past (who showed what when and where), the present (what to hang where) the soon (organising invites and openings for the next exhibition) and the future (what will we show next year in our 20th year as a gallery).

What's the first thing career related you usually do each day?
1. Drink coffee 2. Check emails.

Can you describe an "average" working day for you?
Busy. See the 2 answers above.

Who or what in the arts world most inspires you?
People like Kathy Freedman and her husband Laurence who quietly and consistently support the arts community through Stills and the Freedman Foundation. Artists who are passionate and excited about what they do and strive to push themselves and their means of expression. Writers and curators like Jacqueline Milner and Robert Cook who are so eloquent and thought provoking.

What's the toughest challenge you've dealt with on the job?
Conflicting demands and maintaining diplomacy.

What's the best piece of advice you were ever given for your career?
Under promise and over deliver – not the other way around.

What are the top three skills you need in your particular role?
Ability to multitask
Sense of humour
Interest in art

What's the best thing about your job?
Getting to know and work with some amazing people. Getting to look at pictures a lot.

And the worst?
Can’t afford to buy as much art as I’d like.

If you had to sum your working life in a word or phrase, what would it be?
Busy and interesting.

Tell us something unique about your gallery in 300 words or less.
Stills Gallery is a long established Australian gallery with a focus on contemporary photography and multimedia art. The gallery, founded in 1991, is housed in a converted warehouse with a large exhibition and printroom space in Paddington, Sydney. Stills Gallery represents both emerging and established artists, and has a history of fostering artists who work at the forefront of contemporary photo media practice.

The gallery's annual program consists of nine exhibitions. Artist talks are regularly scheduled throughout the year to promote discussion and understanding of the exhibited work. The gallery also advises individual and corporate collectors on all aspects of starting or maintaining a contemporary photography collection.

Stills Gallery frequently engages art fairs and projects outside of the gallery. It participates in local and international art fairs such as Melbourne Art Fair, Art Cologne and Paris Photo. In addition Stills regularly works with the major Australian public galleries on exhibitions and projects involving gallery artists.

Stills artists regularly participate in international exhibitions and special projects, recent examples being Busan Biennale, Korea (Ricky Maynard), Photoquai, Paris (Anne Noble at Musée du Quai Branly) and C Photo, New York (Petrina Hicks & Trent Parke). Trent Parke, the only Australian member of the prestigious Magnum Photo Agency, regularly exhibits his work throughout Europe and the USA.

Stills Gallery has worked in close collaboration with festivals such as Mois de la Photo in Montreal and specialist museums such as FOAM and the Aboriginal Art Museum (both in the Netherlands) and museums of national significance, such as the Bridgestone Museum and the National Arts Center (both in Japan).

STILLS GALLERY
36 Gosbell Street Paddington NSW 2021
P 61 2 9331 7775 F 61 2 9331 1648
Tues to Sat 11am-6pm