​This enchanting work by Kate Shaw has recently become available for purchase exclusively through RJA. It was purchased for clients, along with other works by Kate Shaw, from Martin Browne Gallery in 2019. Now that they have downsized, the owners are reluctantly letting it go to a good home. Could that be you?

Mandy MARTIN 1951-2021
Outer Harbour, Port Kembla, 1989
Oil on linen
100 x 243.5 cm 

RJA was recently invited to contribute to the Leonard Magazine in their art expert series. Rodney spoke about the challenges and rewards of mounting large-scale exhibitions an exhibition upcoming Fernmania // Lush exhibition that he is curating for Winter 2026. He also unveiled the recently formed partnership between National Gallery of Victoria and Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale that will enable access to their extensive Australian and International Collections and specialist curatorial and exhibitions expertise.
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Auction houses play an important role in bringing to light new works and providing research into provenance  and context. RJA maintains strong relations with the Australian and International auction industry and can help find a suitable platform to buy or sell major (or rare and unusual!) 

Heartening to see the auction record for Roma Thompson (1919-2020) well and truly broken, on the back of spirited in-house bidding, with two works offered on behalf of a client at Leonard Joel’s recent Spring ‘Women Artists’ exhibition.
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Born in 1919, Roma Thompson is an overlooked Australian modernist artist and designer who grew up in the Melbourne bayside suburb of Mentone. She left school at fifteen to pursue her passion for art and become a fulltime student at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. In 1945 she became an art teacher at RMIT and taught tapestry design and weaving at Caulfield Technical College. Thompson exhibited with the George Bell Group and Melbourne Contemporary Art Society in the 1940s and 50s before almost disappearing from public view, taking up painting again in the 1980s and exhibiting with Russell Davis Gallery.

RJA are fortunate to be handling a small group of select works from this period, including the two works successfully sold at Leonard Joel. Watch out for future releases or contact us directly if you know the location of Thompson works, would like to learn more about the artist, or are interested in acquiring one for yourself!