A Secondary Eye is built on a simple idea: sourcing works from collectors, not artists. It made director Jesse-Jack De Deyne one of the country’s leading voices on the Australian Indigenous art secondary market.
Founded in Brisbane in 2020 before relocating to Sydney in 2024, the gallery brings a sculpture-focused booth of Far North Queensland works to this year’s Sydney Contemporary, where De Deyne also joins the talks program for The (Contemporary) Art of Antiques.
Your grandfather was an early collector in the family. How much of your eye did you inherit, and how much did you have to find yourself?
I read somewhere recently that if you’ve grown up amongst art and design in your family, it becomes an aesthetic bath which you soak up. I was very fortunate to grow up with fantastic art on the walls, but further to that were the stories that came with them. My grandfather had travelled extensively to Arnhem Land and the Kimberley and whilst there met with a number of artists who are now recognised as the heavyweights of the movement. It was his recounting of these experiences, and the excitement around that, which rubbed off on me.
You’ve worked both sides of the desk, at Maningrida Arts & Culture in Arnhem Land, then at an auction house. Which one changed how you see a piece the most?
Hearing my grandfather’s stories of Arnhem Land, I jumped at the first opportunity to go up there myself. First was on a university trip, then I would go up and volunteer at Maningrida Arts & Culture centre during my uni holidays. Experiences that have coloured a lot of what I’ve done since. The jump to an auction house was great fun too. It puts you in a front row seat to learn a lot about the art market simply through sheer exposure of artworks and collectors. I met a lot of people who were equally as enthusiastic about First Nations art but knew far more than I did, so was able to learn a great deal from them.
A Secondary Eye is built on giving a work its second life. What does that mean to you personally?
Our exhibition program is focused on bringing renewed interest to artists who, while remaining important, have had their star or spotlight wane in recent times for whatever reason. Our intent is to refocus attention through an exhibition, accompanied by a dedicated catalogue, and get conversations going once more about the importance of that artist.
The Kimberley artist Queenie McKenzie has always been a hero of mine. I was continuously frustrated seeing her artworks unceremoniously shoved towards the back of auctions without any context or credence given to her work. She passed away in 1998 but still holds a huge matriarchal presence in the community of Warmun, and continues to influence the aesthetic of the art that comes from that region. In 2024 at Sydney Contemporary, we presented the first dedicated solo exhibition of her work in over 20 years. All we did was tap into an existing appreciation for the artist, but it really reinforced the idea that great artwork from the past can still have resonance today.
Tell me about the Aurukun works in your Sydney Contemporary booth. What drew you to them, and what do you want people to feel standing in front of them?
Sculpture has a different presence to paintings, so by having a booth dedicated to sculpture we hope to make an impact at the art fair. Aurukun has had a long standing tradition of sculptural practice going back generations, and this offered selection are historical pieces from the 1990s and 2000s. Ken Thaiday Snr’s kinetic sculptures from the Torres Strait are also very striking. Their origin points are in ceremonial dance objects, but I love how the artist subsequently pushed the envelope into these amazing contemporary sculptural pieces.
What’s one thing you’d want someone to see differently in their own home after talking to you?
It’s not the most expensive things that are the best trophies. It is the pieces with a narrative edge that you get excited telling people about. Whether that be around who made it, who had owned it, where it had been exhibited or where you have found it, that’s the more fun way to engage with things.
