The story of Art Post Uki

 In 2017 a young man arrived in Uki and bought the Post Office. ‘Good grief!’ said some of the locals, what’s a young fella like him gonna do with our Post Office?’

What Gary Wall did with the Uki Post Office is now legendary, and those same locals enjoy the restored elegance of the heritage listed and efficiently run Post Office, the delicious Bastion Lane Espresso coffee roasted in house by Roast Master Gary and most importantly and quite surprisingly, the art of local artists on the walls.

But how Art Post Uki came about was really by chance. Gary bought a work by local artist Susan Kinneally and contacted her with an offer of coffee and to ask for advice.
‘What!?’ said Sue when Gary suggested to her that he would like to exhibit art on the walls of the Post Office. ‘Good grief, no…’ she said, ‘it’s much too dark and pokey – no light, no room …’

 ‘I’ll fix that!’ exclaimed Gary. ‘I’m planning to move out the old counters in the middle, build new shelves, restore the beautiful old benches and eventually move the black post boxes from the front of the PO which would completely restore the look of the place as well as bringing in lots more light and space…’

‘Yeah?’ said Sue, ‘that’s pretty amazing!’ But how about we have just one artist at a time – there still isn’t a lot of space and the art work of each artist would then have a chance to shine, rather than being squished up together. How about an “Artist of the Month” show for instance?’

‘Done!’ said Gary ‘and then we can have a new exhibition opening once a month, I can get a red carpet, I can play the trumpet and I can give a bit of a speech – I love an event!’

‘Wow!!!’ said Sue (who was a bit gobsmacked and stuck for words) ‘that’s amazing. It’s not very often that an artist gets to express a wish and have it granted on the spot!’

Our first Art Post Uki show was in February of 2018, with artist, musician and composer Matt Ottley. It was a rip roaring success, attended by many enthusiastic art lovers, coffee lovers, devotees of the Uki Post Office and happy members of the community.

So far we have hosted 20 fabulous exhibitions, including showing the art of local schools as well as artists of many different styles and ideas. Stimulating, intriguing, at times hilarious and at other times moving or deeply thoughtful, the art shown at Art Post Uki is always enjoyed, appreciated and discussed at length by the community of Uki. The new exhibition openings every six weeks are one of the real highlights of the Uki Calendar.