Concrete Playground

When Daimon met Chuck: Charles owns a furniture store. Daimon, a musician-cum-artist, wants to stage an art show. Chuck and Daimon get to talking. The 1500 square metres is calling out for some artistic attention, and when better to do it than when the fashionistas come out to play? Et voila! We have a fashion week art activation (with food by bills) called the MCM House Art Show.

The abundant space in Waterloo will be home to 70 of Sydney’s well-known and emerging artists for four full days, running May 6 to 9. See hybrids and monsters run riot in Claude Jones’s delicate prints and works on paper and Fiona White pack a punch with her narrative-rich portraits and scenes. Paul White, known for his delectable delineations that prioritise the subject over the setting, will present highly anticipated new work, and Daimon Downey, one of the brains behind this operation, will also feature, with some sweetly mad acrylic paintings.

Photographers Nick Leary and Tom Ramsay show wildly different suites of works: Leary takes us to a capitalist graveyard in Neon Gravesite, documenting where billboard signs go to die in Las Vegas, while Ramsay transports us from rural Victoria and parts of Arnhem Land to his imaginary Shanedale — “a world full of hunters, strippers and fishermen”. It doesn’t stop there; MCM House Art Show will also feature sculptures and installations and promises to break down the art world’s pretence, making art accessible and celebratory.

Image: Charles Hinckfuss and Daimon Downey.