A rare appearance not to be missed. Legendary Australian blues icon Wendy Saddington returns to the Melbourne stage in a stripped back setting of voice and piano that highlights her astonishing vocal soul power. In 'A Soul Seance' Wendy will…
One Night Only - Monday 22 October Rebetika Performance and Celebration Australian born musician Hector Cosmas became celebrated in Greece as an outstanding exponent of Rebetika, the "Greek blues". The news of his untimely death earlier this year shocked us…
British pianist Ashley Fripp has performed throughout Europe, Asia and the USA at such venues as Carnegie Hall (New York) and the Royal Festival Hall (London). Fripp has won prizes at national and international competitions including the coveted Gold Medal from…
Melbourne artist Graeme Altmann was born at the end of the Great Ocean Road, where the wind and salt have carved out some of Victoria’s most spectacular coastline. This tranquil yet wild landscape continues to inspire his work. Altmann’s paintings…
The twice divided circle is a welcome reference point when we have lost our way. This symbol with its union of the circular and the straight has inspired Allison Jonas Young’s latest body of work. Upon a background of bare…
Young Korean artist Park Sung Soo has brought a very beautiful, contemplative exhibition to fortyfivedownstairs, and has filled both galleries with ease with large scale brush paintings. Park uses brushes as wide as a house painter’s brush, and it’s difficult…
Gallery hours don't fit your lifestyle schedules? fortyfivedownstairs has a solution! Get your culture fix and expand your social life at our Friday night extended hours. a) Unwind after a busy week. b) Enjoy a drink from the bar. c)…
Irrespective of belief, background or current circumstance we can be sure that we were all children once, navigating our way through an unfamiliar world. Kirstin Finlayson explores this precious and at times precarious phase of life in her latest exhibition…
Kitty is an ordinary woman living an extraordinarily complicated life. An early morning surprise visit instigates a series of choices; leading her on a journey to discover a side of herself she doesn’t want to know. Struggling with the consequences,…
Cathy Drummond has become well known for her urban landscapes, gleaning imagery from local Melbourne streets, rural Victoria, Italy and the U.K. In Stilled Life, New Paintings, she continues to find dynamic and at times humorous visual relationships in what…
A love of interesting surfaces and life's rich patina, which only arrives very gradually with age, is central to the making of Bill Hay’s paintings. A deliberate layering and scumbling (pushing the half set paint about) has been employed to…
'Wild extremes in fearless performance shock, fascinate' - The AGE(DasSHOKU Hora!) Butoh Punkess, Yumi Umiumare ignites her next infamous DasSHOKU Cabaret, a culture-crush dementia bursting from the shaking earth. Osaka's legendary Theatre Gumbo and local shock-toy acolytes bring things of darkness out into footlights. Jap-pop…
Fiona Sweet, art director and creative director of Sweet Creative, and Garth Oriander, photographer, present Sweet Oriander, an exhibition of their creative collaboration over five years for Malthouse Theatre. The exhibition is exclusively from the Michael Kantor and Stephen Armstrong…
Rumi Takamoto’s vivid paintings and ceramic sculptures, are influenced by natural forms. They practically writhe with energy, appearing to stretch and twist, echoing unfurling trumpet flowers or crashing waves. Adopting techniques employed by the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, Takamoto applies…
What do you do when the country you grew up in the country you fought for has no place for you? Michael James Manaia is flooded by memories and images of his life, including the close relationship with his younger…
Melbourne’s freshest crop of fashion mavericks have joined ranks in this exciting and innovative exhibition,offering you an alternative to the traditional runway-style fashion experience. Immerse yourself in the explosion of thoughts and ideas from our highly anticipated emerging designers as…
The Housing Project is a playful and engaging interactive installation about about the challenges, experiences, problems, and delights of urban life. In this work, people can build cities using miniature ceramic trees, houses, factories and high rise buildings. As these…
Meeting at 11.00am we will embark at a leisurely pace through the city's inner East, stopping at significant sites for James' paintings along the way - taking in lush gardens, bustling streets and hidden lane ways. Finding ourselves conveniently at…
In Walking to Work James Yuncken documents his daily commute from home to studio. His paintings depict parts of Melbourne’s inner east, worked from photographs taken en route between November 2010 and January 2011. The aim? 'To show those scenes…
In early 2012 playwright Bridgette Burton was awarded a grant through the Malcolm Robertson Trust for a first round development of a new script about cyber-bullying. The development took place in June 201 and the outcome was a first draft…
Formed in 2008 in Geneva, Switzerland from three of Australia’s leading young musicians, the Streeton Trio is the only Australian ensemble ever to be selected for the prestigious European Chamber Music Academy, where it has been ensemble-in-residence since 2010. The…
Rehearsed readings of winning scripts from the R.E. Ross Trust Playwrights' Script Development Awards. The boy out of the country by Felix Nobis -Monday 19 November at 7.30pm The play revolves around the sale of a country property to accommodate…
Recipient of The R E Ross Trust Playwrights' Script Development Award 2009, Rhonda Is In Therapy by Bridgette Burton is a new Australian work that explores the themes of loss and grief. After an unimaginable accident, Rhonda takes flight from…
The Marvelous Wonderettes takes you to the 1958 Springfield High School Super Senior Prom where we meet the Wonderettes, four girls with hopes and dreams as big as their crinoline skirts! As we learn about their lives and loves, we…
From the talent behind sell-out success Urban Display Suite - prepare for Mademoiselle. Michael Dalley and Paul McCarthy are overdressing and overacting as they storm into fortyfivedownstairs for a champagne cocktail of wit with an extra dash of bitters! A…
Herman Miller, with its designers, has shaped the world of modern furniture design as we know it. But the company’s influence is not limited to product design and manufacturing – equally acclaimed are the now iconic art and illustration posters…
The Spinifex Arts Project was established in 1997 as part of the Native Title documentation process. Large collaborative paintings were created that document the entire Spinifex area, ranging over the Great Victoria Desert to the Great Australian Bight, showing claimants…
An exhibition exploring the 230+ projects entered in the 2012 Victorian Architecture Awards. Nowhere in Australia is the process of making architecture as celebrated as it is in Victoria, particularly in Melbourne, a city where architecture makes a tangible contribution…
FOUR STARS- THE AGE- read the review FOUR STARS- HERALD SUN- read the review Three walls. A roof. A floor ... And thick black iron bars. The McNeil Project presents two of Jim McNeil’s best-known plays penned in the Parramatta jail…
Creativity in Bloom Saturday 28 April, 12pm - 4pm 30 minute sessions will commence on the hour and half hour Join curator Sally McKittrick and UNFOLD exhibitors to play with paper in slow motion. Drawing from techniques adopted by artists…
A group exhibition by Peter Summers, Troy Mendham, Emma Langridge, Tim Gresham, Louise Blyton and Lynette Smith. These six Melbourne artists all focus on the myriad pathways of abstraction. The exhibition title refers to the multiple terms used about abstract…