How not to curate an exhibition

Gippsland Art Gallery photo: S Grishin

In June 2023, the Director of the Gippsland Art Gallery drew my attention to an exhibition that they had mounted titled Double Vision: Nadine Lineham & Frank Mesaric. This was to see if I was interested in doing a long essay on Mesaric’s art to correspond with a proposed major exhibition of his work in 2026. Nadine Lineham was Mesaric’s partner, almost twenty years his junior, and also a painter with a very refined sensibility but, from my perspective, lacking her own artistic language. Mesaric was an artist who produced a great volume of work, much of it, I thought was fairly pedestrian, but a few pieces were carefully finished and quite accomplished. Mesaric had turned seventy and there was enough in his work to hold my interest, and I said yes to the idea of a major essay. This was to prove to be a mistake. 

Mesaric is a local Gippsland product, born in Sale in Victoria, he studied in Morwell and then taught in private schools in Traralgon and Sale, and still lives just outside of Sale. He is virtually unknown except amongst friends in this part of Gippsland. 

He mainly works from photographs that he photocopies onto transparent sheets of film that he then projects through an overhead projector onto his canvas. This provides the outlines of the composition that he would then colour in, in a meticulous manner. Sometimes several photographs would be juxtaposed in the composition leading to unexpected combinations. Mesaric is devoted to his paintings and produces a considerable quantity of them, many rather repetitive and betraying various influences on his art, for example, the work of Francis Bacon.

He is also a highly organised artist, with an eye on posterity, with all his work documented, photographed and almost all of it retained in the artist’s own collection. This certainly made him a dream artist to work with and a database was promptly put at my disposal. As the project continued over the next couple of years, it became clear to me that Mesaric was a very insular artist whose work had never undergone critical editing and there were individual interesting pieces, as well as what appeared to me a torrent of dross. It transpired that in 2026 I would be the guest curator of his retrospective exhibition, and my essay would be published as a monographic catalogue. My vision for the project was a discreet exhibition of Mesaric’s finest paintings that had a slightly eerie and foreboding quality under the title of Gippsland Gothic and these would be displayed against darkened walls and dramatically lit.

In March 2026, the wheels of the project fell off the curatorial cart. The artist insisted to the Director of the Gippsland Art Gallery that many more of his paintings and drawings should be included as well as his three-dimensional pieces that were from my perspective slight and, at times, somewhat silly. These were to be included in the book and the exhibition, otherwise there would be no exhibition. I promptly resigned as guest curator and minimised my participation in the catalogue, as it no longer contained the work that I had selected but also had a mass of very mediocre pieces.

When the exhibition opened in June 2026, it was a huge disappointment. It was crowded and full of work that reflected poorly on this artist. There was some controversy because some people found offense in that he employed in his paintings, images from photographs of Neo-Nazis making the Nazi salute as well as images of full-frontal nudity. I suppose a relevant question to the artist is why this aging artist teaching in private Christian schools was drawn to such images? The gallery’s response was to place signage reading: “PLEASE BE ADVISED. This exhibition contains images that may cause offence to some viewers. The Gallery advises viewer discretion and that some images may not be suitable for children.” 

I think that Mesaric is a better painter than the one who emerges from the exhibition in Sale that looks more like a Gippsland op shop, than Gippsland Gothic. 

A curator can act as a filter for an artist’s oeuvre and one who can be a conduit between the artist and broader audience. Earlier this year, I curated the spectacular exhibition, Leonard Brown – Painting the Celestial for the Ipswich Art Gallery. All critical indicators demonstrate that exhibition was an outstanding success. It was well attended and attracted directors and curators from throughout Australia, the critical response was overwhelmingly positive and extensive, and the artist was showered with compliments and new commissions. Sadly, the same cannot be said of the Mesaric exhibition at the Gippsland Art Gallery in Sale. 


Gippsland Art Gallery
70 Foster Street, Sale, Victoria
Closes Aug 23, 2026