The Thousands

Being Adelaide’s leading artist-run gallery can’t be easy. To be taken seriously by artists and curators (from South Australia and interstate) FELTspace could adopt a holier-than-thou attitude – all humourless art-intelligentsia talk. Whoever is in charge at FELTspace ain’t no fool though. For a start their showcase book is called FELTspace Gold. Genius. It’s balls-y. It says, “We’re gold and we know it”. Even better than the title is the promo shot. It could have been an austere image of an empty gallery or a white background with the FELTspace logo in the centre. Instead, our Facebook feeds are adorned with a luscious image of artist Romi Graham dressed as Britney Spears. It’s perfect, right down to the gold tights.

FELTspace Gold is made up of illustrated profiles of the work of 28 local emerging artists. A specially commissioned text is included about each artist. Each text is written by one of four Adelaide arts writers – a good way of balancing variety with consistency in the writing styles. A book like FELTspace Gold can ensure Adelaide artists are made visible to curators and gallery directors in other states. More importantly though showcase books with as much personality and verve as FELTspace Gold re-establish Adelaide as an epicentre of culture.