A Dedicated "Art Barn" Lets the Owners of This Unique Home Regularly Rotate Their 350-Piece Curated Collection

In her new book, Art in Residence: Collected Objects and the Architectural Homes They Live In, Nicole England, an award-winning architecture and interiors photographer, shares a glimpse inside some of the most beautiful homes that have been brought to life by an expert curation of objects and artwork.

"A well designed home is important to our wellbeing, especially one that includes the things we love — these are the things that stimulate and inspire us, and the stories and memories that make them so special is what I was interested in showing," she tells Livingetc.

In the excerpt below, we get a peek inside Arndt Residence, the unique modern home of two art dealers and their continuously rotating collection.

There are few people who live and breathe art like Tiffany Wood and Matthias Arndt. The art dealers and advisers behind Arndt Art Agency have lived around the world, run galleries and, quite literally, been immersed in art for decades.

With such a background and pedigree, it’s no surprise to learn that their home is a continuation of their life’s work. As Matthias recounts, they had always wanted to build a home but lacked the time and focus until everything aligned: the perfect parcel of land, a longstanding relationship with the architects at CHROFI, and the decision to build a family home and a space for part of the art collection.

This new house, positioned on a coastal landscape on the Mornington Peninsula [in Australia], has a main residence and an utterly unique ‘Art Barn’ — a dedicated space to showcase their rotating, eclectic collection of art. Transcending the conventional, the combination of these two separate dwellings allows the couple to have a home where they live with their art, and an additional building that facilitates curation and play, where their art takes on new meanings.

The two buildings work with the topography of the land but speak to each other: the Art Barn within a repurposed structure on the property; the residence a new build with a modern homestead aesthetic. For Matthias and Tiffany, it was important that their home did not feel like a gallery, but rather a space where they can live with art, engaging with it in an organic, intuitive way.

There is a confidence to the curation, where old and new pieces are paired. For instance, a 15th-century Lippo d’Andrea is placed next to a modern Australian artwork by Del Kathryn Barton. The art is as fluid as the space it inhabits, with an approach to collecting that is idiosyncratic and highly nuanced — a side-effect of the couple’s depth in the industry.

"There’s no real focus point or geographical boundary. We collect what resonates with us, what we love," Matthias shares. Pieces are rotated regularly, allowing the collection to remain active and fresh. "Nothing stays in the same place for too long. Our collection is mutable," Tiffany notes.

Viewed as a ‘living organism’ that is never static, the collection includes roughly 350 works. But it is the playful experimentation that is integral to how these two reinvigorate and enliven such a wide range of art, especially in their residence. Picasso ceramics mingle with a colourful textile by Filipino artist Marina Cruz, which holds court alongside a haunting portrait by Nigerian artist Collins Obijiaku.

While there is a certain worldliness to their collection, the pair share that since taking a residence in Australia, they found joy in Indigenous Australian art, from Sally Gabori to multi-talented First Nations artist Zaachariaha Fielding.

One of the most recent additions is a custom dining table by Mexican artist Fabien Cappello — the color and craftsmanship give a playful touch to the terrace. Each piece embodies the couple’s penchant for mixing old and new, the local and the global.

You can order your own copy of Art in Residence: Collected Objects and the Architectural Homes They Live In from Amazon.