Christine Abrahams
Christine Abrahams was a major supporter of contemporary Australian art in Melbourne since the 1970s. Artist Lenton Parr said of Christine that she valued art "as a gift to the spirit and a source of pleasure and enlightenment."[1] She was Manager of Powell Street Gallery between 1976 and 1980 and a Co-Director of Axiom Gallery from 1980 to 1982. She founded Christine Abrahams Gallery in 1983 at 27 Gipps Street Richmond, an inner suburb of Melbourne. The building was converted from a clothing factory by architect Daryl Jackson in 1980. Christine Abrahams Gallery was operated from 1994 by her son Guy, and it closed after 25 years in November 2008.
Christine initiated the influential Australian Contemporary Art Fair (now Melbourne Art Fair)[2] and was a member of its organising committee in 1988, 1990 and 1992. She was on the board of the Fifth Australian Sculpture Triennial (1993) and was a member of the Visual Art Export Group of the Australia Council and the Craft Council of Victoria.