Design Anatomy

Top 5 Places Where Designers Find Great Art

• Bree Banfield and Lauren Li • Season 2 • Episode 22

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Art can transform a room faster than any sofa swap, and today we map the exact places we rely on to find pieces that feel personal, joyful, and within reach. We start with the VCA Art Grad Exhibition, a friendly doorway into original art where you can speak to creators, learn what moves you, and buy before prices climb. Then we head to Leonard Joel for the thrill of the auction: weekly catalogues, known names beside hidden gems, and a smart path to works on paper that deliver character without the premium.

From there we zoom in on accessible curation. Studio Gallery makes discovery simple with transparent pricing and an easy-to-browse stockroom across Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. For budget-savvy walls, we lean on The Poster Club and Paper Collective: beautifully curated prints, multiple sizes, and framing options that look elevated, not mass-produced. And because flat art isn’t the whole story, we champion ceramics and sculpture from Pepite and Craft Victoria to add texture, shape, and depth to shelves, consoles, and dining tables.

If you’re craving bold colour, Fenton & Fenton curates expressive, playful work that suits lived-in homes. For a wider view, the Affordable Art Fair and Melbourne Art Fair offer a mix of approachable and high-end galleries in an open, energised setting where conversations come easy. We also share how to read gallery pricing with confidence and why many spaces now list costs online. To wrap, we demystify commissioning: how to brief an artist on size, palette, and budget so you end up with something made for your light, your scale, your story.

Whether you’re buying your first print or commissioning a centrepiece, the rule is simple: collect what you love and you’ll never tire of it. If this guide sparked ideas, follow the show, share it with a design-loving friend, and leave a quick review to help others find us.

Bree is now offering a 90-minute online design consult to help you tackle key challenges like colour selection, furniture curation, layout, and styling. Get tailored one-on-one advice and a detailed follow-up report with actionable recommendations—all without a full-service commitment.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Design Anatomy, the Interior Design Podcast hosted by friends and fellow designers, me, Bree Banfield.

Speaker:

And me, Lauren Li, with some amazing guest appearances along the way. We're here to break down everything from current trends to timeless style.

Speaker 1:

With a shared passion for joyful, colour-filled and lived-in spaces, we're excited to share our insights and inspiration with you. And today we thought we would share our top places to source art from. Affordable or splurge. I will try and stick to a top five. I've listed some and I'm way over five, so we'll see how we go. Lauren, let's start with you. Give us your first one.

Speaker:

Alright, so my first one is I think it's a really good tip. It's the VCA Art Grad Exhibition. So the VCA is the Victorian College of the Arts. Every year they have a graduate exhibition. It's held in one of their buildings, which is right near the NGV. And it's always like a really nice warm night. There's like all of these cool young art people everywhere. I haven't been for a few years actually, but you can buy never been. I should do this. This is a major top tip. Like wow. Of course. It's happening on the 27th of November this year. So if you just go VCA Art Grade Exhibition 2025, it'll bring up a um, you know, a ticket thing, and you can just register. So I reckon we go, Brie.

Speaker 1:

Amazing.

Speaker:

I'm I'm there already.

Speaker 1:

Like that's I'm a massive art fan, and you and I have both talked about how art is like can be the thing that you splurge on, you know, instead of the sofa, even. But to find amazing, affordable art that kind of like rocks your world, that is like the ultimate goal, right?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So things like an art grad exhibition, and I know that there are some of the colleges that also do a similar thing, right? Like sort of the, I think it's more like an art auction where they have things, I guess, donated to raise money for the school. And but they're at probably a quite a good price. I know Sweet has taught us about that before. But and it would be, I would know off the top of my head, but I don't what it was exactly. But that's a another one to look out for.

Speaker:

Yeah. But yes, all right, 27th of November, I'm there. And if you're listening, come and say hi to us. We'll be standing near the bar.

Speaker 1:

Yes, we will. Absolutely. I I'm gonna start with my, I guess, my biggest one and my go-to, which is Studio Gallery. I have known Carrie, who owns Studio Gallery for a very, very long time, kind of well before I guess she was a well-known artist. So she's a good friend. And I think they have a really great way of, I guess, curating and presenting their art. So I guess one of the biggest problems with galleries is that from a layman point of view, as an average person going, I want to buy some art and not being in the art world is that it can be quite daunting, right? There's it's a bit sort of scary. Like even as designers, there's galleries where, like, oh, we've got a we've got a client and they have some money. Can we spend it with you? And they can actually still be quite standoffish. I find Studio Gallery to be incredibly approachable. You can actually just spend time on their website and still understand how much something actually costs. Whereas there's a lot of galleries who won't necessarily put those things on the website. So it gives you just, I guess, a good understanding of what can I afford, what do I like? You can browse the artists, you can have a look at, you know, what's available now in the stock room. So I feel like they're just a kind of good in-between go-to. I wouldn't say everything's affordable in terms of depending on your budget. I've purchased from there and I don't have a massive budget, but there's definitely some really high-end pieces. And then there's some more affordable pieces. They have galleries in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. So you can go and look at the artists and have a look at them. But I just find them quite approachable, easy to deal with. And so it's kind of a good all-rounder start for me. That's some studio gallery.

Speaker:

I think that you've just nailed it because they do there is a huge big space between a high-end art gallery that's like this big white box that's really intimidating to walk into and buying a poster. From IKEA. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's so true. And I feel like there's, you know, the there are times where we do want to invest money in art, and maybe you're not someone I'll invest, you know, as much as I possibly can in art. It's just something that I love and and would love to spend, would love more money to be able to spend on it. Come on, universe, but they're exactly manifesting. But, you know, there's obviously also the just the average person who's building the average house, you know, in a reasonably affordable mid-range that still wants to have great art. Absolutely. I find them a good go-to for that.

Speaker:

Very clever. My number two is Leonard Joel. So we've talked about Leonard Joel here before.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker:

So great. And it is it's like finding treasure. I mean, you can flip through the catalogue and um you can have a look through the weekly auction, you know, you can look at different categories, and it's usually the last section in the the catalogue, the online catalogue, where you can find the artwork. And again, it's a mix of prestigious art by artists that you might know, you know, the Boyds and Charles Blackman, John Olson, you know, those really established artists. And you can even pick up, you know, work by them on paper, which is very affordable. But then there's just a whole lot of unknown, you know, not as well known. But it's just whatever kind of speaks to you. And I've bought art from there before, and it's yeah, it's cool. I love it.

Speaker 1:

I feel like that's the thing, in my opinion, from I guess from my perspective, if you're not a collector of art, so you're not like going, I'm investing this money like a, you know, like you're investing in real estate into these art pieces, and it's got literally nothing to do with how you feel about it and more about who the artist is, what the piece is, when it was created, etc., what the projection of um, you know, its increase in value is going to be. Then art needs to be for you. So something like um, you know, any kind of vintage pieces you can get from somewhere like Lynn and Joel, where you can buy art that's from unknown artists, it doesn't matter who created it. Agree. It just matters how it makes you feel or how it looks in your space. So that's that kind of becomes the more important factor, in my opinion. So it's a it's such a great place to start.

Speaker:

And you sort of think, well, if I bid on it and if I get it, it was meant to be. And if I don't get it-cause I love a bit of meant to be, it's a little bit lotto-ish, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it feels really exciting. You can you can join the live auction online or you can place an absentee bid. It's fun. So yeah, yeah, that's my number two.

Speaker 1:

I love that. Oh, that's a good one. I do like that. Uh, okay, now I'm literally just like scanning my list of things and going, what will be my number two? I'm gonna go really like affordable and say post-clow. Now, if you if you're not familiar with post-clow, but they are, I wanna say they're Nordic. Are they like Swedish? Swedish. Oh my gosh, Danish, yes, Danish, maybe let's say Danish, let's say around that area. Scandinavian, Scandinavian, they're a Scandinavian company. I still find them amazing to deal with and really responsive. I've emailed them lots of times and they get back to me quite quickly. And there are also places here that stock their stuff that you can purchase sort of straight away. I know design staff usually have some. I think Tree often have, is it Tree or even maybe RJ Living? But there's a few places that have poster club artworks here. But if you jump onto the poster club website, you could spend three hours looking through their amazing array of affordable options at different sizes. So obviously they're prints, you can buy them just as the print, you know, rolled up and sent to you, or they will frame it for you and provide the frame. A lot of them will fit into IKEA frames. So if you look them up and go, okay, great, love this, go and buy my rebar frame, whatever it is from IKEA, frame it cheaply or get it delivered and frame it with your local framer. But they just have like the most, they have fantastic collaborations, a really huge array of different styles. I just love the affordability of it. I use them quite often for clients who maybe we need to fill some walls, maybe it's even a children's room or just a place where we're like, okay, we've invested in these pieces and we've spent a lot. We need a couple more pieces and what do we, where do we go? I sort of go there and look for really interesting abstract art or something that's maybe not necessarily something you've seen a lot of. Like I feel like it's still different enough to not look like everybody else. Like, you know, let's say we go to IKEA and we pick up a print there, maybe we've seen it a bit. Yes, I find poster club is like an amazing option for that sort of low end, but still looks great.

Speaker:

Agree. And whoever curates their art, the artists, it's elite. They are just so gorgeous. We actually used to stock them in our online store. Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, and it was interesting. Years ago, um, we sold one of them and it was just to someone in Richmond. I can't remember. They they said they had a podcast or something. We're like, oh yeah, whatever, cool. Who doesn't? Who doesn't have a podcast, right? And it was the shameless girls. Oh, really? That's very cool. I know. And I was like, hey, is it our print that we sold them? And yeah, anyway. But um, yeah, I love their artwork. There's the poster club and then there's the paper collection. And I sort of go between both of them. Oh, I don't know.

Speaker 1:

My god, I don't know the paper collection. I'm immediately going to Google that.

Speaker:

And they do one that is printed on an acoustic board. So if you've got a dining area that's like super noisy and you just need all the help you can get with acoustics, some of their artwork's printed on this. It's like uh, it's like um, oh, what's that? Recycled Coke bottle kind of pin board stuff. Anyway, yeah, um, yeah, really cool as well. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Love her. I love that. We'll definitely be looking those up and looking that particular. Was it paper?

Speaker:

The paper collection, paper collective, something like that. All right, yeah, yep, okay.

Speaker 1:

I'll I'll Google it. I'm sure it'll come up.

Speaker:

Something like that. And my number three, ceramics. So I think, you know, when we think about art, we instantly think something hanging on the wall. However, some a beautiful sculptural piece on your dining table, something cool on your shelves, coffee table. I would look at Pepete and the Craft Victoria, and they have a bit of crossover with who that represents. But Pepite by Irina, she has such a cool collection and it's always increasing. I don't know how she finds so many incredible ceramic artists, a functional but also art pieces that she keeps. So that's my number three, ceramics, and also 3D art, you know, in terms of a ceramic piece that you can literally hang on the wall as well. It's cool.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I'm always encouraging clients to think about that a little bit more so that they've got a mix of things, particularly if we do like a, you know, uh an art hang situation or where you want to have a mix of artworks. It's you kind of want to have some three-dimensional pieces, not just a kind of framed prints or a framed canvas. You want something that's maybe slightly more organic in the shape or whatever to break all of that up. So they're they're great places to go. And yeah, always looking at Craft Victoria and Papete, they're probably one of my big go-to's for any of those higher-end decor pieces as well. I mean, they have you know, like more affordable stuff, but like it's it's kind of the elite of the people who are creating those beautiful pieces in ceramic and and metal and glass. That's kind of where to find it, right? Definitely. They're so special. Okay, so mine number three, I am going to go with Fenton and Fenton. I think that Lucy has always had a really great eye in terms of pulling together amazing artists that uh I guess also represent the Fenton and Fenton brand, which is there's usually colour and they're usually quite bold, um, a little bit quirky or you know, left or center. But I often go there for clients when I'm in that sort of mid-range, you know, it's not super high-end. There's lots of affordable things. They definitely do limited edition prints. But the, I guess the boldness and the use of colour and the artists that that brand attracts, I find works quite well with my type of client. And yeah, I think they have a really great mix of of artwork there that's quite accessible. So that's probably my next go-to.

Speaker:

Perfect. Yeah. It's when you say Fenton and Fenton, colour comes to mind. And, you know, it's it's great to see, you know, new artists coming up onto their platform as well. It's a great place to discover artwork.

Speaker 1:

So true.

Speaker:

Yeah. And I I think um I'm thinking of more things. I've got more than four or five. I've got, I'm just gonna mention the design files actually, to find up and coming artists because they have their own exhibitions that they run in their studio, which are just yeah, they do beautiful little events there. Well, not little, they've become quite packed. But I don't know how she finds so many great up-and-coming artists. Like when I think of some of these galleries that I I want to mention, I think about the first time I saw them was on the design files. And now they're yeah, yeah, quite prestigious artists. So sometimes I will just go onto the design files website and have a look at their art, their different artists. So that's a great place to look as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I mean, sometimes it's key, like finding, I guess if you know the style of art you love, and then you find those artists before, I mean, I guess they're hitting the design files, they're somewhat discovered, but they're maybe just before they're hitting the cusp of being a little bit bigger. Exactly. And you can go in and you know, snap up an artwork and then find that the next time they do an exhibition, it's maybe twice the price. So not that it's about for me, it's not about, as I said, like making money, but like if you can get something that's kind of hitting your price point and that you love and that you then go, oh, and also they're amazing. Look at their projectory, like that's always really cool, right?

Speaker:

It's pretty exciting thinking, oh, I'm so glad I I bought a piece from that artist right at the beginning of their career. Yeah, yes, it's pretty cool.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I'm gonna say the other thing that I love to do, and this is also a bit of a mix, but there is a lot of high-end galleries, and that's the Melbourne Art Fair. So that's coming up, I think, in February next year. There's always the Affordable Art Fair, which has just gone, I think it was what last month or October or September. Anyway, it wasn't long ago. Always also an amazing thing to visit if you're in the, I guess, looking for art and you want something, you don't really know what you want. It's such a great place to start. You can wander through, see what you like, what you don't like, meet a few artists themselves who have stalls there that basically they're selling their own things. There's also galleries, so you can meet them and have chat. It's just a really good way to start, I guess, looking at art and thinking about it. The Melbourne Art Fair is kind of the next level up from that, which is, you know, you have a lot of the high-end galleries. They're introducing artists that they really want to push forward into the world. It's a lot of designers and art collectors who are visiting. So there's a slightly more high-end feel to it. But I have discovered some absolutely amazing galleries and artists at the Melbourne Art Fair in the past, and you know, and introduced those into projects. So I guess it's it's kind of like a slightly elevated version of an art fair. And there's often furniture pieces there as well. Like it's it's not just art, like it could be sort of more collectible type furniture, some more bespoke kind of one out one off pieces. Yeah, I don't know. I kind of I like the vibe. It is high-end, but I'm I don't feel out of place there.

Speaker:

Yeah, I have to agree. I was gonna say that as well. Like it's a really great buzz in there. Everyone's actually quite happy to have a chat, and it doesn't feel intimidating, like they're they're out of that gallery environment, and um it's really it's gets super packed, but it's such a great in like such a great vibe, and it's yeah, mingling with the high-end galleries and sort of like the mid. But you know, I remember when we went, we saw some pretty affordable pieces there, like quite surprisingly.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is a bit of a mix. There is definitely a, I guess, a bridge between affordable and high-end. I mean, there was definitely some pieces where I was like, oh my god, I want that so badly, and I probably will never be able to afford it. But then I actually discovered some amazing artists where if I had the funds at the time, I probably would have purchased pieces because they were reasonably affordable, and new artists kind of on the scene, so their prices were, you know, within reach and an exceptional kind of artwork. So it's it's like I think what's great about those fairs is just what you can discover. So you go there to look and discover and be curious about even what you like and and what you're kind of gravitating towards, especially if you're not quite sure.

Speaker:

And there's a uh a good mix of sort of more, I guess, avant-garde experimental artwork there when you're like, oh wow, that's I don't like that. Why don't I like that? You know, it's kind of fun as well. And yeah, so it's not just all artwork to put on your wall, it's it's a bit, uh there's some installation pieces that too. A little bit of, yeah. Yeah, some some challenging artwork that makes you think, which is kind of what art's supposed to be about. I know, it's cool. Well, my last one, number five, is galleries. And I just wanted to point out a couple that I really enjoy. And one of them I've never been to because it's in Brisbane, actually. It's in New Farm in Brisbane, it's called Edwina Collette Gallery, and she represents some really some of my favorite artists. Sally Anderson, Ari Athens, Bridey Gilman, and they're just joyful, colourful, there's abstract, there's realistic, there's uh a nice range. I I really, I really like uh signing up to those uh gallery email lists and and seeing them in my inbox. At least it's something kind of exciting in my email.

Speaker 1:

Very, yeah.

Speaker:

And I also love Sophie Gannon Gallery. She represents Judith Wright, Emily Ferrati. So yeah, I think you sort of have a couple of your go-to's. And as you say, I think you mentioned with studio gallery, putting the prices on. I've noticed that galleries are a bit more open to putting the prices on their websites now. So it probably saves a lot of admin and back and forward for them just to get pricing. Sometimes you just want to know, are we in the ballpark? Like what what are we looking at?

Speaker 1:

It's it's a very traditional thing that galleries do by not stating the prices. I guess it's strategic in a way, but I guess with the rise of affordable art and people discovering you as a gallery, you sort of want to be able to have, you want to be able to click on an artist, maybe see what's in the stock room and go, oh yep, okay, that artist starts at X, and that's way out of my price bracket. And so I'm not gonna send an email to the gallery and ask them what the price of this is, and then like cower away slowly when I realize it's three times the budget I have. Yeah, and waste and waste their time. But I look, I I kind of I love I love tradition. I get that there's like ways things are done, but also let's evolve a little bit in the art world and and be a bit more open to I don't know, being a little more transparent about it. And there's definitely galleries that do that, and there's still galleries that probably never, never, never will, and that and that's fine. And on the flip side, it's just a different league, I think.

Speaker:

Yeah, and on the flip side, you could be like, Oh god, I don't think we could afford that. So you scroll right past it when you actually think, you know what? One and a half thousand dollars, oh my god, that is so doable, you know. There's so how would you know? Yeah, there's Fred Fowler, the um, he's got pieces on the Sophie Gannon gallery. They're like twelve hundred dollars.

Speaker 1:

I love Sophie Gannon, yeah.

Speaker:

So, um, and then she's got um she's representing an artist who's doing these miniatures at the moment. Eight eight by six centimeters. Oh, that should be affordable. I don't know, depends what your idea of affordable is, but they're sixteen and a half thousand dollars, so they don't price art per square centimeter. I know, and I always love a mini, but yeah, that one's definitely outside.

Speaker 1:

They're exquisite. Yeah, they're exquisite. And this is the thing about art, right? Is it's a really tricky thing to be able to gauge. And this is why I think it's good to have at least some maybe bracket or an indication so that the average person who may not know enough about art to understand what they should be paying, at least they can kind of go, okay, this is that's not for me. Um, it's way out of my price bracket. And then also, I don't know, I feel like it it's a bit of goodwill as well to sort of come in, have someone go, like, yeah, I kind of get it. And you know, there's a there's a range here or of of works that I might be interested in. And I find most galleries are actually way more approachable than maybe what you expect them to be as well.

Speaker:

I was gonna say, like, even going to Sophie Gannon's gallery, I remember going in there and it's a it is the white box type of gallery. And Sophie was there and she's like, come into the stock room and have a look. And I was just like, this is like heaven. Just stacks and stacks of art. And she was very approachable, very warm and friendly. And that was really, really lovely, actually. I was quite taken aback because you, as I said, it can be a very intimidating place, and also people want to buy from people. So if you're really a stuck up person in a gallery, like I'm I just don't think that that's really gonna work anymore.

Speaker 1:

I do think it's yeah, I do think it's a bit of an outdated approach. However, there's obviously still, as I said before, people who buy particular type of art, um, and we're talking, you know, like very fine art, and they buy it more as an investment. And the people that deal with them um are almost advising them on an investment. Like, what are you interested in? Is it even going to be on display? There are people who have whole rooms or their own stockroom of artwork that isn't even on their walls. And that's like a whole nother level, right? One of my clients is like that.

Speaker:

One of my clients, my my funny client that's a lawyer. She's got her um chambers on Collins Street, her um her basically her office, and she's leasing out another one to store artwork. Right. I'm like, I'm pretty sure there's more affordable places to store art. I don't know how much it costs to lease out of chambers, but um, she's got so much, especially incredible indigenous art. And it's it's so lovely when you talk with a client and you see their passion for it. Yeah, she's obsessed.

Speaker 1:

That feels slightly different. That's like like I there's different levels of collectors. There's collectors because they're investing, and there's collectors because they just love it, like me and laboo-boos, for instance, like or shoes or bag. No, no, uh, you know, if I had money, art would be something I would probably end up with too much of quite easily because I you buy it because you love it. But also I do the same thing with buddy side tables and lamps. And so my house is side tables and lamps and just a whole heap of artwork just leaning against the wall because there's no room for it. Anyway, not a bad, not a bad place to live. Um, okay, I got one more. This is really hard. I'm gonna just do this because it's a shout out to an artist that I very much respect and have also known for a long time. That's Antoinette Ferda, um, who has her own gallery and now supports other artists within that gallery. Beautiful work. I don't know, she's just always been amazing to me. I've um commissioned works with her and she's just fabulous to deal with. Yeah, I don't know. I think I think my point on Antoinette is dealing direct to an artist is also a really great option if you can track them down, let's say on Instagram or, you know, social media and approach them directly. Some of them may say, Yes, my art is sold through X and it's a gallery or whatever. And some of them will go, like, Yep, I have a stock room, or hey, what are you after? What size do you want? I can create something for you. And that is the best. Like it probably sounds really intimidating to commission an art piece. Like, you know, you need to have some ridiculously huge budget, but there's so many artists that are really happy to do that, and they're just so thrilled to create something that's just like specially for you, especially for that space, fits your budget, looks the way you want it to look. They just want you to be happy, like it's just sharing their joy, really, isn't it?

Speaker:

That's and it's that um that energy, that it's like embodied energy in an artwork that they're passing from them to you. It's kind of special.

Speaker 1:

Oh, 100%. I feel like every artwork, I guess, is like that in some way. But to deal with an artist direct and and have a commission that's that's made for you, I don't think there's anything more special than that, really.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm. Yes, it's one of those things that if I win Lotto, there will be signs. Me too. We'll be tripping artwork.

Speaker 1:

It'll be artwork and lamps and side tables and occasional chairs and probably dogs, and then the wardrobe will be a lot of bags and shoes and laboo-boo.

Speaker:

Definitely signs, a lot of signs, shoes. I love it. Okay, that was fun, Bring. It felt fun. Yeah. Yeah, it's a good, it was a good roundup. Yeah. All right. Well, Brie and I, we've got some episodes that we're excited to share with you with some special guests. But until then, we'll catch you next time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, go buy some art.

Speaker:

See you, Brian. See you later. We've got the utmost respect for the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. They're the OG custodians of this unceded land and its waters, where we set up shop, create, and call home and come to you from this podcast today. A big shout out to all of the amazing elders who have walked before us, those leading the way in the present, and the emerging leaders who will carry the torch into the future. We're just lucky to be on this journey together.