ABOUT US

First established more than 20 years ago, Tacit Art looks to collaborate with artists in supporting the presentation of their work to a wide audience. In those 20 years and at several different locations, Tacit has presented the work of more than 1200 artists in excess of 500 exhibitions - a true reflection of our passion and commitment to artists and the art form alike.

The team at Tacit is headed by 'The Boys' - co-founder, artist and curator TJ Bateson (Tim) and director Keith Lawrence. Through their personal dedication and commitment, Tacit has moved forward exponentially in the last 10 years to a position of importance in the visual arts field in Melbourne and further afield.

Tacit prides itself in working closely with artists to empower more control over exhibiting work and further develop their practice. But we also facilitate, encourage and develop links between the arts and its audience. Alongside exhibition launches, we actively promote and support events such as artists talks, meet the artists, book launches etc that facilitate promotion of work and artists alike. And, over time, Tacit has built a loyal and knowledgable audience who return time and time again to the diversity of exhibitions on offer.

TJ Bateson - BA (Fine Art), GradDip (Visual Art), BT (Hons), MA (Fine Art)

Tim has more than 25 years experience as an exhibiting artist, curator and arts educator – and a whole slew of related qualifications from all five of the main Victorian Universities. From studying in Bendigo in the early 90s at La Trobe through to his MA (Fine Art) at RMIT, Tim has immersed himself in expanding his knowledge and art practice, including collecting the Alice Taylor Memorial Prize at the University of Melbourne – the only artist to date to do so.

He became the owner/director of Melbourne School of Art (MSA) in 2000 based in Elsternwick, a private TAFE that offered a range of qualifications from certificates to diplomas. The School employed more than 50 full and part-time educators providing classes seven days a week. During this time, Tacit was established at the new Thornbury campus – a venue aimed primarily at students, teachers and MSA alumni to exhibit their work.

Alongside a spell of teaching art in state and private schools and working as a freelance photographer, Tim’s art practice continued to thrive, seeing him invited to present solo exhibitions at the City of Glen Eira Gallery and Horsham Regional Gallery as well as collaborate with performance artist Hellen Sky on the Arts Council inter-art grant funded Darker Edge of Night project. He became the curator and visual arts convenor of the Midsumma Festival (2009-11), expanding the program to record-levels of local, regional, national and international artists.

In choosing to focus full-time on his art practice, Tacit and related activities over the last five years, Tim has been invited to sit on various Creative Victoria funding panels, act as a consultant on government-funded training programs and completed his MA. His art practice has also gone from strength to strength, with invitations to exhibit in group exhibitions in regional galleries, seeing his work exhibited in Tasmania, Queensland and NSW as well as reaching the shortlists of several significant art prizes, including the Burnie Print Prize, The Silk Cut Print Award and The Hutchins Works on Paper Prize. He was one of the 10 selected printmakers for the Print Council of Australia’s 2017 Print Commission – the scheme’s 50th anniversary.

Keith Lawrence BA (Hons)

Originally from the UK, Keith has been in Australia since 2003 (all in Melbourne) and has worked in the arts for more than 35 years.

Experience includes Community Arts Officer for the London Borough of Southwark and Artistic Director of London’s Lilian Baylis Theatre @ Sadler’s Wells before being appointed, in January 1993, the first Drama & Dance specialist to the British Council, based in London with responsibility for promoting British drama and dance overseas. Responsibilities ranged from producing international tours of companies such as Rambert Dance to Argentina or the Royal National Theatre to Lisbon, Istanbul and Thessaloniki through to initiating and supporting pan-continental exchanges, collaborations and workshop programs in, among others, South Africa, Kenya and Germany.

He was posted to Tel Aviv in July 1997 as the British Cultural Attache where he developed and implemented British cultural policy in Israel. There he added music, film, literature and the visual arts to his working experience. He is the founder of the annual multi-city British Film Season, a key player in the establishment of Dance Europa and facilitated the presentation of such significant exhibitions as Yinke Shonibare (Israel Museum, Jerusalem), No World Without You (Herzliya Museum of Art: curator Nechama Gottleib), Uri Gersht (Helena Rubenstein Pavilion, Tel Aviv) and Storytime (Nazareth Cultural Centre: curator Anna Sherbany).

Almost six years later, he was enticed to Australia to establish the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange where his first project was to produce and co-curate the private collection of Gabrielle Pizzi travelling to Jerusalem. Entitled Mythology and Reality, it was the first such exhibition of Indigenous Australian art to travel not only to Israel but the Middle East. Further visual art projects included support of the 2006 Sydney Biennale (curator Charles Merewether); John Young to Noga Gallery, Tel Aviv; multi media artist Tal Rosner at the Melbourne International Arts Festival and a close working relationship with Sydney's Sherman Galleries.

Keith left at the end of 2009 to undertake a freelance career with clients including Palace Cinemas, Film Art Media and Melbourne International Arts, Film and Jazz Festivals. As a freelancer he based himself at Tacit, a position which facilitated the decision to expand into our first multi-gallery premises at 312 Johnston St, Abbotsford.