Nestled in the quiet suburb of Kensington, on the 29th of August one could stumble across a Backyard Art Market set up behind an artist by the name of Ruby’s house. Boasting itself as the baby of the MCA and Glebe Markets, it showcases young artists’ works and prints for sale as well as a range of gorgeous clothes, awesome records and other knick-knacks to add character to any area.

With $2 cheese toasties for sale to accompany you on your journey through the (relatively small, but hopefully soon-to-grow) selection, the artists and sellers are always open for a chat – be it about art movements and whether or not a rock with a face painted on it is art (Dadaism?) or just how they’re doing that day.

This being the first installment of this hopefully continuing backyard art market, the selection was obviously limited but still chock full of gorgeous, rare finds – some of which I myself ended up taking home.

Each of the artists display a sophisticated practice and a lot of creativity and passion for their work. Buying a print of theirs not only results in you gaining a gorgeous new artwork, but gives them the money they need to make more and more art, so you can slowly fill your place up with their brightly coloured and imaginative works until it starts to be slightly overwhelming – that’s my plan, at least.

For brightly coloured works that somehow make you feel a whole lot cooler just by owning them, head to martinamartians (instagram: @martinamartian) store and pick yourself up a print, a patch and coming-soon, some cool clothing.

If darker, more abstract stuff often sprinkled with great slogans are more your cup of tea, than Harry Klein is your go to guy for incredible paintings, prints and the odd sculpture (or ten). You can find him at his website harryklein.net.  

Then finally, you can stroll over to the one who so graciously offered up their home for this event – Ruby’s stall. There you’ll find odd knick-knacks, often Japanese in theme and style as well as their own works in print and patch form.

Although this was the first of its kind, Ruby and the other artists involved are hoping to host another one at some point in October, so to keep yourself updated you can follow Ruby on instagram at @playkill.sc.

– Ruthy Scheinberg