ABOUT GREER ADAMs

I am an Australian Indigenous Art specialist, dealer, and collection management consultant with over 16 years experience. I am also an approved valuer in the Australian Government Cultural Gifts Program.

Greer Adams Fine Art was established in 2013 because I'm passionate about working with private and corporate clients to acquire and sell works of exceptional quality and impeccable provenance, and to carefully curate and manage their collections.

I have also facilitated the acquisition of Aboriginal art by many public collection institutions including:

The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
The National Museum of Australia, Canberra
The National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
Flinders University Museum of Art, Adelaide

I am proud Cabrogal woman of the Dharug Nation.

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

I fell in love with the world of Australian Indigenous art at a very young age, while travelling to Aboriginal art centres in remote communities with my father.

I majored in art through high school before continuing on to a degree in Art History and Theory at the University of New South Wales, College of Fine Arts. Originally intent on becoming an auctioneer specialising in 17th and 18th century French and Italian art, I studied at the British School in Rome before returning home to complete my degree at Melbourne University.

My first job in the art world was at Sotheby's.  My passion for Australian Indigenous art and artefacts led me to work in Sotheby’s Aboriginal Art Department for three years between 2007-2010.

In 2010, I headed to Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency in Fitzroy Crossing – 400km east of Broome, Western Australia – to manage their national and international exhibitions. Artists come in from both desert and river country across four different language groups.  To sit daily in the presence of elders, and to work for them as they shared stories, song and country, was an invaluable experience.

In 2011, I returned to Sydney to co-head the new Aboriginal Art department at international auction house Bonhams. Highlights included the landmark contemporary Australian art auctions, ‘Selected works from the estate of Paddy Bedford’ and the ‘Laverty Collection: Contemporary Australian Art’ both of which we toured to London and New York.

CURRENTLY

Since the establishment of Greer Adams Fine Art in 2013, the following year I became the curator and collection manager of the Estate of the late Duncan Kentish, a highly regarded Adelaide-based fine art dealer and collector from the late 20th century.  Mr Kentish was a passionate collector of Aboriginal art and in particular artists from around Fitzroy Crossing.  This in turn has provided me the honour of working closely with and advising The Estate of Jarinyanu David Downs (c.1920-1995), one of the great West Australian Aboriginal artists of the 20th Century.  In 2019, I facilitated the sale of an extraordinary collection of 23 pieces by Jarinyanu David Downs to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, in part drawn from the private collection of the late Duncan Kentish. See article about this sale, here.

Greer Adams Fine Art has also curated a number of landmark exhibitions dedicated to significant Aboriginal artists including Janangoo Butcher Cherel (c1920-2009), Pijaju Peter Skipper (c.1929-2007) and Anatjari Tjakamarra (c.1938-1992). View some catalogues here.  Record prices have been achieved for artists such as Ginger Riley Munduwalawala, Albert Namatjira, Prince of Wales and Tommy Watson. See some significant sales here.

I continue to advise significant collectors of Australian Indigenous art both nationally and overseas.