Introducing art into your home is an easy way of injecting personality, colour and texture to the space. And sitting between generic, mass-produced work that’s cheap as chips and high-end, ultra-luxe masterpieces, there’s a vast pool of beautifully made artwork looking for a home.
Wading through the options to find the perfect piece can be daunting, but new online gallery Aster & Asha wants to change that.
It’s founded by Brisbane-based Bayoush Demissie, a long-time member of Australia’s contemporary arts scene who’s previously worked at Brisbane’s Jan Murphy Gallery and the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts. After 10 years in the industry, she says collecting art has become more accessible than ever.
“We’ve all become so much more adept at navigating the digital world and that’s also true for the art world – people are becoming more comfortable with viewing and collecting work through an online means,” she tells Broadsheet. “It felt like it was time to do this for artists that maybe don’t have a following, and [provide] opportunities for artists people might not otherwise find.”
The website has different filters to help you find what you’re looking for, whether it’s a painting of a certain size, a specific medium (such as photography, collage or a mix), or anything that fits within your price range.
If you’re unsure if a certain piece will work in your space, send Aster & Asha an image of the room you hope to hang the art in and they’ll give you a mock-up of what the piece would look like in your home.
The gallery currently represents 12 Australian contemporary artists, with a commitment to showcasing artists from diverse backgrounds.
“In the last few years, there’s definitely been a push to be more representative of what our nation actually looks like,” Demissie says.
“It’s also because there are artists of diverse backgrounds making great work, but it’s just not presented as widely at the moment.”
But it’s about more than just diversity – above all, Demissie has chosen artists with unique styles and voices, who have important things to say.
“What’s important to me is that the artists are making meaningful work – there’s a strong idea behind what they’re doing, but [it’s] also aesthetically appealing,” she says. “Beautiful and meaningful, which can be a tough ask, but there are artists out there doing it with interesting techniques and materials.”
There’s Perth artist Carla Adams, whose work interrogates what it means to be a woman in the digital age, while Senegal-born Kevin Diallo explores Black suffering and African representation in the media through photography and collage. Other artists in Aster & Asha’s portfolio look at diasporic identity, cross-cultural histories, the subtleties of everyday life and finding beauty in patterns.
To coincide with the online gallery’s launch, there’s also a pop-up group exhibition happening in Brisbane. Titled Inner Worlds, it’s a look at self-reflection and the myriad ways it can take on form.
“That’s something that probably more and more of us have had to do, especially with the recent pandemic,” Demissie says. “We all have an inner life, and the artists have really tapped into different viewpoints for this.”
Inner Worlds will run from May 22 to 23 at Ileana Contemporary Art in New Farm.
