McGrath's new art form
Cricketing great Glenn McGrath, who turned seam bowling into an art form over his illustrious Test career, has taken a shine to hanging art on a gallery wall.
McGrath and his wife Sara Leonardi-McGrath plunged into the Perth art market on Wednesday night with their Art of Curating an a glitzy “pop-up” exhibition at a multimillion-dollar riverside display home in Bicton.
The McGraths, who set up the Mclemoi Gallery in Sydney last year, launched their Art of Curating exhibition in a Perth perfect storm of fine art, prime real estate and sporting A-listers.
The 120 invited guests at the Signature Custom Homes property included McGrath’s old teammates Adam Gilchrist and Tom Moody and former Boomers basketball captain Matt Nielson.
McGrath said his wife’s art knowledge had opened up a new world for him.
“It has been a big journey, a big learning curve,” he said.
“I have always had an appreciation for art but being from the bush, it was probably more your conservative Australian landscape artists like D’Arcy Doyle who I liked.”
The couple have presented 12 exhibitions at Mclemoi Gallery with art historian and curator Kristia Moises, a friend of Ms Leonardi-McGrath from her school days in Miami, Florida.
“I install the artwork in the gallery most of the time, and the lighting, always the lighting,” the 196cm-tall paceman said.
In Perth, They are showcasing works by 15 artists including Los Angeles pop-art duo FriendsWithYou, Argentinean abstract-graffiti artist Diego Singh, French painter Charles Munka, Hollywood photographer Tyler Shields, and Australians Peter Burgess, David Rankin and Merrick Belyea.
Prices ranged from a few hundred dollars to $26,000.
Mrs Leonardi-McGrath and, who McGrath married in 2010 after the death of his first wife Jane from breast cancer in 2008, said they had partnered with Signature Custom Homes in the upmarket home-open to reach new buyers in a turbulent art market.
“You don’t just sell art by sitting in the gallery,” she said. “Those who do, God bless them, but we believe in going to consumers directly. Art is about getting people to see it. I come from a sales, marketing and business background and if there’s anything I learned it’s that you have to reinvent the business model.”
The home at 21 Reserve Street, Bicton, is open at weekends from 2pm to 5pm until February.
