Visions of Love by Marisa Mu is the third solo exhibition of fortyfivedownstairs’ online Fragments series, and the final Fragment of 2020. Visions of Love is a series of works on paper, all created recently as an act of defiance against…
We’re incredibly pleased to announce that we will be reopening the gallery at fortyfivedownstairs on Tuesday 1 December. We can’t wait to welcome our audiences back into the space! The first two exhibitions you will be able to feast your…
Deep and meaningless, the second solo exhibition of fortyfivedownstairs’ online Fragments series features the work of Melbourne artist, James Hale. This collection of artworks, made just prior to or during Melbourne’s extensive lockdown, is piercing in its simplicity, capturing the…
In the first solo exhibition of fortyfivedownstairs’ Fragments series, artist Terry Swann - one of Australia’s foremost contemporary landscape watercolourists - takes us on a journey from the Kimberley to the Pilbara. Since living in the Yarrabah Aboriginal Community, Far…
We're very pleased to announce HERE, the first exhibition in our Fragments online series, open now! Click here to view the exhibition. HERE brings together 25 accomplished Victorian artists, including Judy Holding, Chris Orr, Lisa Sewards, Marisa Mu, Gavin Brown, Naomi Bishop, Tom Gerrard, Mark Chu and more. The online…
2020 has been a difficult year for everyone, and in times like these the sense of humanity and connection that art can bring is essential. Luckily for us, while the rest of the world has been shutting down, artists have…
We're so looking forward to Janno McLaughlin's upcoming exhibition Making Nonsense at fortyfivedownstairs later this year (dates to be announced soon!). Janno has been incredibly busy on many projects these last few months, including this exhibition, with Rose Lang as…
At fortyfivedownstairs, we love to encourage visitor engagement within our gallery spaces. Visual art is so enriching, and even more so when you can talk about it, or even participate in it! Robyn Rich is an artist who consistently and…
3000 Streets is the photographic trace of Mike Reed’s near and far wanderings in the worlds’ arteries with the odd servings of meatier bites than others but always a lean towards the unusual and quirky. The exhibition was due to…
We were very excited to be presenting a group exhibition of artists from Hobart's Colville Gallery this year. Unfortunately due to the current situation, the exhibition was unable to be realised in our Melbourne gallery, but you can still view…
James Yuncken is a longtime fortyfivedownstairs exhibitor and supporter. Sadly his exhibition of small paintings of Hong Kong scenes has been postponed, but we couldn’t resist sharing some of our favourite pieces! Keep an eye out here and on our…
As a non-profit exhibition space striving to show diverse, open and thought-provoking art, we've had some excellent group exhibitions at fortyfivedownstairs over the years. One of the more important exhibitions we have hosted was the incredibly moving All We Can't See:…
In 2017, we celebrated our fifteenth birthday, and decided it was a fabulous time to have a group exhibition of fortyfivedownstairs alumni, named 45 at 45. As a result of our unique mission as an unfunded and not-for-profit organisation supporting…
The Emerging Artist Award is an annual highlight in our gallery's program. Each year, emerging artists from around Australia send through entries to the Award, exemplifying innovation and originality across a range of media, from cutting-edge artistic practices to new…
Great news from the gallery: Alison Percy and Cally Lotz's exhibitions have been moved online, and extended until 18 April! You can view them at your leisure, without leaving your home. Check out Alison Percy's Quietude of the land, the…
fortyfivedownstairs COVID-19 UPDATE April 2020 Thanks to the immediate and generous response of our landlords, fortyfivedownstairs is still in residence, but we’re paddling very hard beneath the surface to stay in a position to re-open when the current health crisis…
We sat down with contemporary photographer Abby Storey to chat about her work and practice. Her exhibition is currently running in our gallery space until next Saturday, the 5th of July.
What is the inspiration behind your current body of work ?
Moving to Melbourne from New Zealand made me really think about where the meat I was eating came from. In NZ I had a good source of genuinely free-range, humanely slaughtered meat, and this was something I initially struggled to find in my new home. My research into areas such as animal welfare, invasive species, food production and land management made me increasingly aware, and in many ways appreciative of the specific knowledge and skills of someone who hunts animals for food and conservation. I have always struggled with killing anything, even a mangled mouse who has been caught in a trap. My inadvertant cruelty in such instances (thank goodness there’s always been someone else around!), sits uneasily beside the fact that I eat meat. I have a huge admiration for someone who is able to – humanely – slaughter and dress the animal they are going to eat, there’s an honesty to this that many of us lack. This is not to say I am pro-hunting however, more pro competance and accountability.
embodied features diverse work by four contemporary jewellers from Australia, New Zealand and America. Tassia Joannides, Suse Scholem, Rachel Timmins and Selina Woulfe break conventions of wearability, each incorporating performance; photography; ephemeral and interactive work as well as object making in their…
Ill-fitted presents a body of work that reflects upon the history of the assimilation of Australian Aboriginal women and their subjection to a western imposition of identity. This imposition involves a process where the subject’s sense of self is manipulated…
Originally trained as a biochemist, Nick Kallincos' works are primarily concerned with the psychological aspects of human experience. How we navigate the real world with the imagined world and how our cognitive decisions are informed by our perceptions, intuitions and…
Working in the landscape, particularly in the Top End and more recently in Nepal, the most powerful lesson I have learned is not to look just with my eyes, but to ‘ look ‘ with my ears, fingers and nose…
The commercial world is a place we inhabit, but the personal realm is where we draw breath - Samantha Simpson, Managing Director, Sam I Am Management Sam I Am represents a collection of passionate and talented photographers, each incredible in…
Media Release 25 October 2012 Bonhams To Auction Major Works From One Of The Most Significant Private Collections Of Australian Contemporary Art – The Laverty Collection. To be sold in Sydney at the Museum of Contemporary Art on 24…
MEDIA RELEASE Prestigious art prize honours refugee artists AMES and Multicultural Arts Victoria are excited to announce the 12 winners of the Heartlands Refugee Fine Art Prize, who were honoured at a special exhibition opening at fortyfivedownstairs in Flinders Lane…
European folklore mingles with Australian and New Zealand myths and legends in Beck Wheeler’s latest exhibition, Gone Bush. The German-born, New Zealand-based artist presents vibrant, colourful works inspired by her cross-cultural upbringing and the oral tradition of folklore. Many works…
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…
Two exhibitions opened in the fortyfivedownstairs galleries last night: Without A Trace by Peter Garnick, and Land Like Mine - Recent Paintings by Nicholas Harder. Both exhibitions run until Saturday 21 April. …
California Gully artist Simon Penrose has been honoured for a second time at the 2012 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards, after being voted the winner of the $2,500 Arts Victoria People’s Choice Award. Eyes are the Window to the Soul, Simon…
The Victorian Indigenous Art Awards aim to profile and promote Victoria's Indigenous art sector. The 2012 awards exhibition features 27 works by Victoria's most exciting Indigenous artists. Check out the free exhibition in person at fortyfivedownstairs, or view the online…
Check out this video of Trevor Turbo Brown, winner of the Victorian Indigenous Art Awards 2012. This video shows respected Aboriginal artist Turbo working on 'Wombat Foraging For Scraps', 'Echidnas In The Dreamtime', and 'Eagle Flying High Trying To Touch…
This article about the Victorian Indigenous Art Awards by Kylie Northover was in The Age on Saturday 10 March. See it in its original context here. Prize-winning artists Katrina Doolan and Glenda Nicholls. Photo: Simon Schluter THE major winner of…
Melbourne artist Trevor ‘Turbo’ Brown has received the Deadly Art Award, Victoria’s highest honour for an Indigenous artist, at the 2012 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards. Turbo received the $25,000 award for his painting Owl Dreaming, a portrait of a ‘spirit…
Heartlands Refugee Fine Art Prize 2012 is currently calling for entries. The prize is presented by Multicultural Arts Victoria and AMES, and has a total prize pool of over $15,000 in cash and prizes, designed to support artistic output and…
Artists, curators and galleries, we invite you to submit proposals for two and four week exhibitions in the first half of 2013. Deadline for first round now extended until 7 May 2012. fortyfivedownstairs contains two elegant gallery spaces. The large…
The closing of A Dingo Fence and Mallee Roots: Victorian Farming on the Fringe was a great success last Saturday. Kristin Deimer's artist talk and accompanying performance by Helen Davey made a fabulous 'Finissage' which is apparently all the rage…