About Adrian Newstead (OAM)

Adrian Rodney Newstead (born 1948) is an art consultant, valuer, art dealer, author, and art commentator based in Bondi Beach, Sydney.

He established Coo-ee Art Gallery in Paddington in October 1981, and following a four-decade long commitment to the development of the contemporary Aboriginal art market, sold Cooee Art and all of its associated business interests in March 2023. He was among the first to promote Urban Indigenous art, the art of the Tiwi, the Warlpiri Artists of Lajamanu, the Kukatja artists of Balgo Hills, the art of the Spinifex People from the Great Victoria Desert, and the art and culture of the Western Torres Strait Islands.

He began working with Aboriginal artists in 1981, and since that time he and his staff curated and organised more than 400 Indigenous art exhibitions in Australia and overseas involving individual Aboriginal artists and community groups. These have included exhibitions in Tokyo, Lyon, Lausanne, Paris, New York, Portland, Boston and Seattle, Santa Fe, Vancouver, Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro amongst others.

In his role as a consultant, Adrian Newstead served as the Head of Aboriginal art for Lawson-Menzies auction house between 2003 and 2007, facilitating among other sales the purchase of Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s "Earth's Creation" for $1,056,000 in 2007. He became the Managing Director of Deutscher-Menzies in 2007-2008 during the period in which Rodney Menzies art auction business was rebranded to become Menzies Art Brands.

Newstead co-curated and coordinated the touring Indigenous prints survey exhibition, New Tracks Old Land, to eight venues around North America and 25 venues around Australia between 1992 and 1996. As a result, he initiated the Australian Art Print Network in 1996 to publish, promote, and market Australian Indigenous fine art prints both nationally and internationally. He was a founder of the Australian Indigenous Art Trade Association (Art.Trade) in 1998 (now the Aboriginal Art Association of Australia) and its inaugural President (he is now its Honorary Patron). In 2006, he instigated the establishment of the Aboriginal Benefits Foundation to support indigenous artists and their families through initiatives in the area of health, education and community development, and has been a trustee and board member since its inception. With partners, he opened Canopy Artspace to coordinate with the 2009 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF). It housed the Australian Art Print Network, the New Flames Foundation, and Editions Tremblay NFP (no Fixed Press).

Adrian has worked closely with all major peak arts bodies including the Australia Council for the Arts, most state arts ministries, ANKAAA (the Association of Northern and Kimberley Aboriginal Artists), Desart (representing desert art communities), the National Association for the Visual Arts and VISCOPY, Australia's national copyright collection agency.

His 2014 book, The Dealer is the Devil: An Insider’s History of the Aboriginal Art Trade, recounts the history of the Aboriginal art movement from an art dealer’s perspective. As a commentator he has been vocal on a number of issues including the Resale Royalty Scheme.

In 2016, Adrian Newstead received an Order of Australia Medal "for service to the museum and galleries sector, particularly through the promotion of Indigenous arts." The same year he organised the first touring exhibition of Australian Aboriginal art in South America, O Tempo dos Sonhos, along with Indigenous curator Djon Mundine and Brazilian curator Clay D'Paula.