Let's face it, there is not a lot of arts philanthropy in Australia.  So when someone builds a four storey art gallery filled to the brim with artworks that they have purchased over the past decade, opens the doors to invite the public in for free and says 'this is my gift to Sydney', one has to take note.  This is exactly what Judith Neilson has done at White Rabbit Collection, her recently opened art gallery in inner suburban Sydney that part houses (along with a couple of other warehouses) the results of her buying spree on Chinese contemporary art since 2000.

The outcome is personal.  And fascinating.  Here is a woman who was introduced to Chinese contemporary art in the late 1990s and who became a woman possessed, determined to collect everything she deemed to be interesting in the Chinese art scene of the day.  This is not an institutional, carefully curated collection.  There is the good, the bad and the (very) ugly.  But the fact that Mrs Neilson has put her money where her mouth is has given Sydney and possibly the world the most intriguing bubble of information about the Chinese contemporary art scene in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

The first exhibit which you cannot fail to pass is Wang Zhiyuan's unbelievably gaudy Object of Desire, 2008, an all-flashing, all-singing, 4m high pair of fibreglass lady's briefs.  This is followed by two oversized red fibreglass sculptures instantly recognisable as the work of Chen Wenling. 

The following three floors feature an incredibly eclectic mix of works from the serenely sublime Oil Spill, 2007, by Ai Wei Wei, the captivating video work of Bu Hua Savage Growth, 2008, the controversial photographs by Chen Lingyang Twelve Flower Months, 1999-2000 (prize winner in Dubai but banned from being displayed) to the apparently amateur work of Bingyi Six Accounts of a Floating Life, 2008.

The breadth of styles on display can be overwhelming but one leaves the gallery with the feeling that this is a fascinating contemporary culture with stories that need to be told, and innovative ways in which to do it.

I am very much looking forward to seeing what Mrs Neilson collects over the next 10 years.  In the meantime, the gallery is aming to rehang the collection every six months.  Let's see what else is in that hat.....

www.whiterabbitcollection.org