Peter Bray Gallery
Peter Bray Gallery (a commercial gallery) was established as Stanley Coe Gallery in 1949 before being renamed in 1951, after a change of management. Situated at 435 Bourke Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, it closed in 1957. Many of the major names in mid-century Australian contemporary art showed there during its brief, but very busy, lifespan. Directors The director/curators were Helen Ogilvie (from 1949 to 1955) and Ruth McNicoll (from Sept 1956 to close). The gallery was owned by Peter Bray, whose interest was in exhibiting pictures and retailing contemporary furniture by Grant Featherston, as it was not unusual in the 1950s to combine the two retail lines into the one establishment Artists Originally Stanley Coe Gallery, established in 1949, and taken over by Peter Bray the following year, Peter Bray Gallery showed Australian paintings, sculpture and prints by significant contemporary artists. Printmaker/painter Helen Ogilvie (1902–1993) was a generous mentor of emerging artists, and in 1949 Stanley Coe appointed her as one of Australia's first women gallery directors to create a commercial exhibition space on the upper floor of his interior design shop at 435 Bourke Street, Melbourne, decorated with pale grey-blue walls and hair-cord carpet. Artist Tate Adams dubbed it