Feature Gallery | Yeah, Nice

“Yeah, Nice” will often be murmured through the corridors of galleries, yelled in the front row at a gig or slurped through a mouthful of Pho. But what does it actually mean? Is it the most authentic sign of approval, a way to make the exclusive seem more inclusive or a polite cop out? Who knows, but as Holly and Jordi describe, Yeah, Nice is ‘a gallery for you and me and us’.

Yeah, Nice will be exhibiting shows monthly in 2021, with a calendar currently fully booked. The space is also available for hire for photoshoots, workshops, showings and more.

Congratulations on the move into the new Gallery! Tell us more about the space?
As many of your readers would know, Yeah, Nice began in the old Mill Street Industrial Estate in Mullum back in 2018. It was such a great location for us, but when our lease ran out, we decided to look around Byron for a new space. Our friends, Matt and Lara from St Agni were just about to finish their new build in the Byron Industrial and mentioned to us that they had one section of the building that they weren’t using that might be great for the gallery. We jumped at the chance and now share the bigger 4 Acacia footprint with St Agni, Daily Counter and Braer. We love being in the Industrial, there are lots of friendly local faces around and plenty of visitors who just stumble across the gallery, which is great.

What’s coming up in the Yeah, Nice program?
This month we are showing local artist, Stefano Pedrini and his new collection of works titled “2141”- many of you would recognise his friendly face from the surf and his kooky artworks are looking so great on our walls.

In March we are exhibiting Lily Nicholson and Poppy Kural who are working with mixed media, fabric and weavings. Then we are super excited to host a joint show with painter, Sarah Darling alongside the amazing, sculptural steel furniture of Jake Fearon.

We know you can’t play favourites, but… What has been the most memorable Yeah, Nice exhibition so far and why?
A highlight of 2020 for us was our Warm Earth group show, which was a collection of paintings by Hannah Nolwan, Nicah McLeod and Minna Leunig. All these women cam from different parts of the country and without any discussion, created these amazing pieces that just worked together. In the past we had struggled to get female artists on board for exhibitions, 2019 was super male focussed for us, so to get these crazy-talented artists in for a group show, well we were just blown away with the works and how the show was received by our community. We look forward to hosting all three women again soon.

What advice would you give to others who are dreaming of opening a creative space?
We still are flying blind here! But the only advice we can give is to give it a shot, work with people you resonate with (we’ve found this a blessing not only with our artists, but also our landlords, our sponsors and all the people we work with) and just try to roll with it.