Chandler Phillip Coventry AM (1924–1999), grazier, gallerist, art collector and arts patron, was born in Armidale, New South Wales to an established New England grazing family. Boarding at Barker College, Sydney for his secondary schooling, and he worked on the family property, Alor-Amia Station, north east of Armidale during his holidays. At the completion of his schooling he returned to New England to farm. Inheriting his first pastoral property, Tulloch, at the age of twenty, Coventry continued to purchase and inherit land over a number of years, resulting in ownership of over 15,000 hectares on which he bred sheep and cattle. His properties were recognised for producing some of the finest wool in Australia.
Meanwhile, Coventry became an avid art collector. Commencing with works by significant mid-twentieth century Australian artists including Ian Fairweather, Russell Drysdale and Arthur Boyd, Coventry began to spend increasing amounts of time in Sydney, immersed in the arts. In 1965 he relocated permanently to the city, becoming involved in Central Street Gallery prior to opening his own gallery, in his home in Paddington in 1970. In 1974 Coventry Gallery moved to an independent space, also in Paddington. The exhibition schedule was filled with shows by significant Australian and international contemporary artists, such as David Hockney and Bridget Riley. During this time, he continued to collect art, and amassed a personal collection with a focus on expressionist and abstractionist painters. This collection was once described by James Mollison, inaugural director of the National Gallery of Australia, as 'one of the most important private collections of contemporary Australian art.' Active as a patron in the contemporary art scene in Sydney, Coventry actively supported John Kaldor's Kaldor Public Art Projects including the famous Wrapped Coast – One Million Square Feet, Little Bay, Sydney, Australia, 1968–1969 by Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
In 1960, Coventry donated a selection of over fifty works to the Armidale City Gallery. This was followed in 1979 with the donation of a large part of his private collection to the gallery on the proviso that a specific art museum would be built to hold his donated works and the Howard Hinton collection of art. He actively fundraised and campaigned for the new gallery. The result was the New England Regional Art Museum, of which Coventry was a founding patron and trustee. After suffering two devastating strokes in the 1980s, he took a three-year hiatus from Coventry Gallery. Upon his return, he exhibited significant contemporary Australian artists including Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Aida Tomescu and David Larwill. The subject of the Archibald winning portrait by Nigel Thomson in 1983, Coventry remained actively involved in his gallery's operations, living on the premises until his death in 1999. The Gallery closed in December the same year.
