Collector Profile:
Gary Sands
VAULT spoke to collector Gary Sands about how dispersing his collection has given him new focus.
VAULT met with collector Gary Sands on a perfect Gold Coast day at his newly renovated apartment overlooking Main Beach, which he shares with his partner of more than 40 years Garth Richardson. In terms of competition for attention, the beach made a strong case but the richness and vastness of the collection won out. Sands’ collection includes painting, photography, ceramics and a large number of sculptures by artists including Tony Clark, Shaun Gladwell, Jude Rae, Dale Frank, Noel McKenna and Bill Henson among others. He has ceramics by a selection of Hermannsburg Potters and Glenn Barkley, sculpture by Marea Gazzard, Clement Meadmore, Guan Wei and Scott Redford as well as works by Indigenous artists including Mavis Ngallametta, Rammey Ramsey, Daniel Walbidi, Yukultji Napangati, Sylvia Kanytjupai Ken, George Tjungurrayi and Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri. Sands, now (mostly) retired from a successful career in real estate, is the driver behind the collection and he spoke to VAULT about the influences on his taste.
Your collection is not defined by one medium or genre, or by art trends. How did you begin to amass such a large collection?
Meeting you has reignited my thoughts and stirred my memories as to what I’ve collected and why, and also where I’m headed in the future. I’ve never really considered myself
a ‘collector’ and I feel a bit of a fraud when referred to as one. To me the term collector intimates and insinuates intent, planning and also, a certain amount of elitism. A bit like a coin collector who wants to add a particular or... Subscribe to read this article in full
