NOT AN EXHBITIONIST
The fashion and art worlds frequently coalesce, but when it comes to his work, Tim Melville prefers the artworks to take the spotlight, writes Tyson Beckett.
Tim Melville, who Auckland gallery in opened, his2007 is best eponymous known for representing emerging New Zealand artists. A trustee of the Wairau Māori Art Gallery at the Hundertwasser Art Centre in Whangārei, Melville is also one of the few Māori gallerists in commercial art.
And he is also committed to introducing artists from Australian Aboriginal communities to New Zealand collectors and curators. He describes the resonance he sees in shared attitudes towards “country” in Australia and “whenua” in Aotearoa and he is interested in exploring their meeting points.
Melville feels “a particular responsibility to try to translate some of the values imbued within indigenous artwork for his gallery’s predominantly European audience of friends and supporters .” As part of that undertaking, Melville will be at the Aotearoa Art Fair from March 2-5, presenting a curated selection of Aboriginal paintings on canvas and bark from right across Australia alongside two major works by New Zealand stone sculptor, Joe Sheehan.
MY STYLE ETHOS IS CLASSIC, UNFUSSY, KIND OF PREPPY.
Bright colour yes, wild pattern not so much. I’ll invest in good shoe s an d boots but I often buy jumpers and oxford cloth shirts from Uniqlo and have them tailored.
I’M NOT A MORNING PERSON
so I don’t want to have to think when I’ve just woken up. Bright jumpers and roll-necks in winter, oxford cloth button-downs with the sleeves rolled-up in summer. Chinos or jeans with boots or white sneaker sy ear-round. It sounds dull but it makes things quick an de asy!
MY EARLIEST CLOTHING MEMORY INVOLVES SCRATCHY TIGHT WOOLLEN PANTS
with stirrups at age 5. My brother Steve got a pair too and we hated them… in fact I remember crying the first time we were told to put them on. I think it might have been then that Mum first saw the writing on the wall.
I’LL WEAR BLACK TIE OR A SUIT FOR AN EVENT,
and I’ve been known to wear some outlandish get-ups to dance parties, but chinos or jeans with a button-down or polo are pretty much my uniform. Tony, my partner, laughs because I eve nw ear button-downs to the beach. With shorts, obviously.
THE MOST SENTIMENTAL THING IN MY WARDROBE
is a black pinstriped suit by Tige rof Sweden. I bought it before coming home from London in th ee arly 2000s. It seemed like something an art dealer should have but of course I’ve never worn it. I keep thinking I should take it to Tatty’s but it just keeps hanging there and I can’t seem to let it go.
THE WAY YOU DRESS TELLS THE WORLD WHO YOU ARE;
the tribe you belong to… or maybe the one you’d like tob elong to. The gallery’s got my name ove r th ed oor so there need stob e alignment betwee nth e way I look and the way I hope the business will be perceived. Having said that, the gallery isn’t about me, it’s about the artists, and I don’t want the clothes I’m wearing tob e a thing.