Defiance Gallery was founded in 1995 and is directed by Campbell Robertson-Swann and Lauren Harvey. For the past two decades, Defiance has maintained a reputation as a focal point for the highest quality Australian and International sculpture and painting. The gallery’s stalwart support for sculpture has marked it as the leading Australian exhibition space for this form.
Founding director Robertson-Swann saw that many of Australia’s most renowned and influential sculptors were without gallery representation. He sought to devote his energies to developing a greater understanding and recognition of sculpture in the wider public through the establishment of a permanent exhibition space for these artists. This campaign for a greater recognition of the art form was manifest in a close involvement in the early stages of many of Australia’s major sculpture institutions. Defiance Gallery also began a series of exhibitions in which artists were given a brief to work to. By instilling limitations on material, subject matter, form or scale, these exhibitions such as ‘Tribal Echo’ and ‘Five Easy Pieces’ were a means of focusing on each artist’s individual language. Many of these exhibitions still occur, including the annual six-inch miniature sculpture exhibition, which has been a highlight of the Defiance calendar for its full two decades and continues to draw new audiences to engage with and delight in sculpture.
Alongside sculpture, Defiance proudly represents some of Australia’s leading painters who form an integral part of the select Defiance Gallery stable. Together, Harvey and Robertson-Swann have worked to build a dynamic gallery community of artists and collectors. Taking on the outstanding students of gallery artists, Defiance has maintained and nurtured these intergenerational relationships and conversations about art, which flow through into lively group exhibitions.
Over the years, Defiance Gallery has continued to facilitate and curate satellite exhibitions in collaboration with institutions and charities such as the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, PEARLS charity event and auction and several local and international residency programs. Perhaps the most important satellite is Defiance Sculpture Park. Described by John McDonald as “The best sculpture park in Australia”, the park, which is currently relocating to the Southern Highlands, is one of the few places where a variety of large-scale works can be viewed on permanent display.
As collector-dealers, the quality of the object has always been the driving force behind Harvey and Robertston-Swann’s gallery. Over the past twenty years they have defiantly stuck to their aesthetic principles and have contributed greatly to the Australian art world and community.
Defiance Gallery proudly represents; Tim Allen, Robert Bell, Andr Bowen, Michael Buzacott, Lyndon Dadswell, Carole Griffin, Ivor Fabok, Lea Ferris, Helen Gauchat, Peter Godwin, Ulvi Haagensen, Madeleine Halliday, Paul Higgs, Paul Hopmeier, The Estate of Roy Jackson, Phillip King, Dan Kyle, Brian Koerber, Anita Larkin, Russell McQuilty, The Estate of Ian Mackay, Ingrid Morley, Kevin Norton, Brian O’Dwyer, Charmaine Pike, Renata Pari-Lewis, Campbell Robertson-Swann, Dave Teer and David Wilson.
