Ann Lewis Contemporary Art Address: Julia Peyton-Jones

Overview

So there's a list. Like BRW or Fortune, it lists 100 of the most powerful people, but its subject is art. Put together by Art Review, spot number one is authority-challenging Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Second only to him though is Julia Peyton-Jones. Director of London's Serpentine Gallery (sharing the number two accolade with its curator, Hans Ulrich Obrist), she's helped take the gallery from a small space with a small budget, to a small space with enormous artistic reputation. And she's bringing her perspective to you at the Sydney Architecture Festival in her 2011 Ann Lewis Contemporary Art Address.

Established first in honour of, then in memory of, local Sydney art luminary Ann Lewis, the Address brings international art stars here to give us a piece of their minds. Apart from its exhibitions, Peyton-Jones' Serpentine builds from scratch and then demolishes a pavilion outside the main gallery every year, inviting any number of big architectural names like Liebeskind, Gehry or Hadid to design the form. She's been booked to talk in our own international architectural icon, the Opera House, where she'll be offering her thoughts on the 'Next Rennaissance'.

Photo by John Swannell.