For Sydney’s Dick Quan, there is nothing passive about collecting art.

By Neha Kale SEP 2015

Some collectors are benign figures, but Dick Quan substantiates that collecting is a revolutionary act. When you step inside his Sydney medical practice Holdsworth House – a space that’s a canvas for Hiromi Tango’s colour-burst installation Nature/Nurture, as well as works by the likes of Tracey Moffatt, Daniel Boyd, Eko Nugroho and Destiny Deacon – it’s clear that Quan is interested in creating an environment that is at once stimulating and challenging. “I like exposing people to art so they can make up their mind unencumbered,” he says.

Quan, an obsessive art fair attendee who’s a member of the Sydney Contemporary Advisory Council, believes that art world hierarchies are mired in dated value systems and that the future belongs to artists that reject ideas of authenticity to instead muddy existing forms. He’s also conceived a new category, ‘Pacific Rim Aesthetic Climate Change Artists’ (PRACCAs), to sum up his compelling vision for contemporary art’s evolution. This year, he was immortalised in an Archibald portrait by Jeremy Kibel.

How did you first become interested in art?
My interest in art is genetic. My mother’s family is full of extraordinary collectors and one of my uncles was always interested in Chinese porcelain and Jaguar cars. He taught me how to look at things. I also collected stamps as a kid, which showed me how to examine details and work out what makes something rare. One of my ancestors was the famous artist ... Subscribe to read this article in full