Australian court lifts controversial ban on women's only art gallery

By Alasdair Pal

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian court on Friday lifted a ban on a women's only art exhibit at a gallery in the southern state of Tasmania, saying it did not discriminate against men.

A lower court in Tasmania had banned the Ladies Lounge at the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona), in the state capital Hobart, after a case brought by a male visitor earlier in May, triggering an uproar among museum supporters and artists.

On Friday the state's Supreme Court overturned that ban, with Acting Justice Shane Marshall ruling the lounge was an attempt to promote equality by highlighting the lack of equal opportunity for women.

Female supporters of the gallery, led by artist and Ladies Lounge curator Kirsha Kaechele, arrived at the court wearing coordinating outfits. They danced and threw paperwork in the air after the verdict was announced.

"This is a big win. It took 30 seconds for the decision to be delivered — 30 seconds to quash the patriarchy," Kaechele said.

The museum describes itself as the "playground and megaphone" of professional gambler David Walsh and its best-known exhibits include a large-scale replica of the human digestive system. It encourages patrons to arrive by boat, where they can sit on seats shaped like sheep.

To protest the ban, Mona moved some of the contents of the Ladies Lounge, including what looked like paintings by Pablo Picasso, to a women's toilet. The paintings later turned out to be fakes painted by Kaechele.

"The Supreme Court’s finding is a recognition that the Ladies Lounge is an artwork that exists to highlight, and challenge, inequality that exists for women in all spaces today," Mona's legal counsel Catherine Scott said following the verdict.

(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; editing by Miral Fahmy)