What’s in the Stockroom?

To celebrate 10 years since we started our ‘What’s in the Stockroom?’ newsletter, each week we wander through one of the region’s premiere stockrooms to find out what treasures lay inside.

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery

This week we visit Sydney’s Roslyn Oxley9, with the eminent gallerist Roslyn Oxley. Pictured in her Stockroom in Paddington.

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Bill Henson, Untitled #18, 2000 – 2001, CL SH439 N31A. Archival inkjet pigment print, 127 x 180cm, AP 1, Edition of 5 + AP 2.

You can almost see yourself in Bill’s work. This work is like a dreamscape. You get lost in it. It either takes you into yourself or to someplace else entirely. His works completely transfix you. They are hypnotic and you can get totally immersed in the darkness.

Isaac Julien, The Oracle- Bronze (Radioactive Avatar #12), 2018. Coloured foils and inkjet prints on dibond, 87 x 62cm.

This is a work with a lot of power. This is a picture I could live with. The energy is very compelling in the way he has sliced up the picture frame to create this dynamic collage. The abstract design contrasted with the exaggerated human head – a beautiful and strong protagonist from his earlier films – creates an incredibly seductive tension.

Sarah Contos, Recliner, 2019, repurposed cane and leather, fabric, poly-fibre, light fixtures, stainless hardware, 130 x 84 x 180cm.

I find the Recliner so incredibly suggestive and sexy. This work was such a brilliant surprise when I first saw it. Sarah always tackles the most impossible materials to create astonishing results. To see the start of this work in her studio was so exciting and a real leap forward in her practice.

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Jenny Watson, First Beer, 2018. Synthetic polymer paint, Japanese pigment, haberdashery attachments on rabbit-skin-glue-primed Belgian linen, 272 x 201cm.

The very first time Jenny presented work in the gallery in 1982, I was completely blown away. I bought two works from that show and they are now key works in my collection. I have grown to love Jenny Watson for the way her works can be so soft materially and yet so strong at the same time. They are so confident. They have this chaotic toughness which contrasts beautifully with its story, the sadness, the often-personal memories entwined in her gestural brushstrokes.

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James Angus, Cast Iron Inversion (Black), 2012, from a series of 5 colours. Cast iron, enamel paint, 80 x 80 x 50cm, 45kg.

I find James’ sculptures really aesthetically pleasing. There is a wonderful rhythm to them. This is a beautifully designed object with very subtle movements. It is a really exceptionally conceived work. It has a strong masculine presence and the tension in his surface textures between shiny and mat, rust and colour is so brilliantly orchestrated.