When art collectors Sandra Powell and Andrew King swapped a passion for modernist Australian paintings to instead stockpile street art, all they had to do was glance at a painting in their bedroom to see the shift that was coming their way.
In 2004, the St Kilda couple purchased a piece by Australian artist Angela Brennan titled Every Morning I Wake Up on the Wrong Side of Capitalism. While the work wasn’t necessarily part of the street art movement, the statement alluded to the renegade work they’d soon start collecting – shifting focus from Sidney Nolan and Joy Hester towards street-born, rebel slogan-focused art.
Over the past 15 years, the dynamic duo has amassed one of the largest collections of street art in Australia. They’ve curated more than 100 of these works to appear in a new show, The Outsiders Melbourne, located in a pop-up store in the former Masons menswear site on Flinders Lane, which has been converted into an art gallery without an entry fee.
We think you might like Access. For $12 a month, join our membership program to stay in the know.
SIGN UPIt’s where you can see works by artists from Banksy to our own street art champions Rone and Adnate, as well as French graffiti artist Blek le Rat – plus many more.
Powell and King are also unveiling their latest investment – a Banksy original titled Firewall – having found a way into his inner circle and being among the first few to access his “January fire sale” in February this year.
Their love of street art goes back to meeting Melbourne street artist Rone in 2008. “When I met Rone he didn’t have any artwork on canvas to sell us and I kept at him until he said yes, he’d do his iconic print of Jane Doe on canvas,” Powell tells Broadsheet.
“Since then, we’ve become great friends and collectors of his work. He introduced us to a network of street artists and we’ve been collecting a range of work ever since.” Rone has since painted a wall inside Powell and King’s St Kilda home.
The first Banksy piece the couple purchased was Love Is in the Air – they paid less than $10,000 for it. While the Firewall price is undisclosed, Powell says it’s north of that sum.
“We started collecting street art through the second-hand art market and then entered Banksy’s world,” says Powell, who has installed an electric wire around the English street artist’s works in the gallery (whether it’s live or not remains to be seen).
“He has very few female collectors … the people who run his studio in London are mostly women and I get on well with them. When they trust you, you’re in. I am in the lucky position that we have a great friendship with his studio and they come to us when new work is up for sale,” she says.
The Outsiders Melbourne features a room dedicated to Banksy works; his most recent photographic series from Ukraine, in 2022, can be found here. There are punkish nods in Grannies, where nannas are couch-bound and knitting (every punk rebel has a grandma back home), while in Golf Sale, Banksy acknowledges the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 with a man bravely standing in front of a row of tanks.
“I love everything about Banksy. He is intelligent, topical and the awareness he brings to so many issues is iconic. That is the essence of street art, it’s commentary on our society and where we find ourselves,” says Powell.
King says it was a conversation with the chair of Australian council of the arts, Rupert Myer, back in 2006 that inspired them to start collecting street art. He was at their home, invited as a guest by a mutual friend, when the conversation turned to art.
Before starting their street art fascination, the collectors had worked in fashion wholesale, making fast-fashion jewellery for chains like Just Jeans, Sportsgirl and Myer’s in-house Miss Shop brand.
“I have always been in the mass market space,” says Powell. “And coming into street art collecting is a natural extension of that. I know what the general public like when it comes to fast fashion, I have that eye and now we’re connected to a younger audience through the street art we collect.”
King says collecting art has brought the pair even closer. “Street art keeps you young,” he says. “I have great old mates I often catch up with and talk about the same old stories over and again, which is great, but since being in the art world we’re surrounded by these fabulous young people. Some are outrageous rebels, that’s what I love the most. The spirit I get back from being around young people and what they’re doing gives me hope.”
The couple has collected more than 2000 works – many on display in their large home, with the others in a Moorabbin storage facility.
King’s advice for starting a collection is simple. “Buy what you love. It can be $50; it doesn’t matter. It’s about supporting artists and local ones – we have an abundance here in Australia.”
King admits they got into collecting street art at a good time. The aim now is to campaign the Melbourne City Council to acquire a dedicated space for Melbourne street art.
“In the end we’ll give this all away,” says King. “We want street art to be recognised [in] that it’s art beyond the street – it belongs in galleries.” Indeed, the couple is part of the reason Rone was exhibited at Geelong Art Gallery several years ago and is now touring his work in Western Australia.
“I always say to Sandra, if our house was to go up for sale, I’d like the advertisement to read: ‘Art Collection for Sale – Get a Free House With It’.”
The Outsiders Melbourne runs from December 12 to May 25, 2025 at 167 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. It’s open daily from midday–6pm and entry is free.
Cafes
Restaurants
Bars
Accommodation
Shop
Broadsheet Pick
Recently Opened