'Naarm Textile Biennale- Social Fabric' is the third biannual exhibition by Naarm Textile Collective at fortyfivedownstairs. This collaborative group exhibition features textile artists from Victoria and will showcase a diverse and progressive range of textile art that challenges traditional conceptions of the medium.
Robert Lee Davis' 'Community Art Card Project' returns to fortyfivedownstairs for the third consecutive year, offering visitors the chance to engage in collaborative art-making by using large playing cards as their canvas to create an installation in the gallery.
Melbourne’s multi-award-winning Lyric Opera returns to fortyfivedownstairs following the success of 'Fly' in 2019 to present the Australian premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s “dazzlingly original score”, hailed as a masterpiece of modern opera. “Commanding and captivating” mezzo-soprano Olivia Federow-Yemm performs the role Isabelle Eberhardt, supported by a cast of Melbourne’s most talented young singers and instrumentalists.
Dena Ashbolt's exhibition, 'Time Between', seeks to capture the nuances of human experience and the shifts in our perception of reality. Her signature cinematic drawing technique serves as a core methodology, while also encompassing a broad artistic output, including drawing, painting, photo-media explorations, and spatial collaborative projects.
Ella Whateley's latest exhibition explores various forms of prayer through the language of abstraction, examining this spiritual practice within Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, and Christianity. Her artworks reflect the unique contexts and environments from which these practices originate, drawing inspiration from her experiences in Indonesia, Taiwan, China, Japan, Nepal, Britain, and Australia.
Created and performed by Emma Louise Pursey and directed by the incomparable Susie Dee, this powerful new solo work draws artist Joy Hester from the margins and places her centre stage. Two decades in the making, this deeply personal work blends arresting physicality with direct storytelling and multidisciplinary design to reclaim Hester’s legacy with passion, compassion, and life-affirming humour.
Carolyn Roberts' latest body of work is a close, personal observation of life in two very different gardens, situated on opposite sides of the world- in Melbourne and rural Normandy. Working mainly in watercolour and mixed-media on paper, Roberts constructs a visual narrative that examines humanity's connection to nature and our sense of place within it.
In his third exhibition at fortyfivedownstairs, Richard Besley will showcase his classic large, abstract layered paintings, which evoke a world of light, movement, and space. However, after 30 years of working exclusively in abstraction, Besley will also be branching out into landscape painting, depicting scenes from his everyday life.
Directors Blake Barnard ('Dark Erotica Quartet') and Keith Brockett ('Footfalls') have assembled a stellar cast (Maude Davey, Cait Spiker, Shaun Goss, and Tim Wotherspoon) for this double bill. In 'Dark Erotica Quartet', three seemingly disparate scenes, structured like a concerto and featuring live music, celebrate the lost art of spoken erotica. And in 'Footfalls', Davey embodies the role of May, a woman bound by duty and lost in quiet anguish in Beckett's meditation on grief, devotion, and the frail borders between.
Multi award-winner Iain Sinclair ('Hamlet', fortyfivedownstairs) directs John Logan's contemporary classic, featuring Dylan Smith ('The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power') as master abstract expressionist Mark Rothko. Working with his assistant Ken (newcomer Jordan Briggs) following the biggest commission in the history of modern art, Rothko faces the agonizing possibility that his crowning achievement could also become his undoing. 'RED' is a searing portrait of an artist's ambition and vulnerability as he tries to create a definitive work.
fortyfivedownstairs is proud to present SMALL!, our fifth annual community-sourced exhibition of small works. Established artists, emerging talents, and child artists will be showcased side by side, highlighting a diverse array of styles and media. All artworks are 20 x 20 cm or smaller, priced at $150 and displayed anonymously.
Playwright Brodie Murray ('The Whisper', fortyfivedownstairs) draws on stories handed down from his grandfather and father to tell a historical thriller that explores the contrasting relationships settlers and Blak peoples have with Country, ecology, leadership and spirituality. After sold out seasons at the Castlemaine State Festival and Yirramboi Festival in 2021, 'Soul Of Possum' returns under the direction of Beng Oh and Balla Neba (movement director).
Fresh off multiple Green Room Award wins for 'Spring has Sprung or The Beautiful Show' and 'Twenty Million Thousand Leagues Under the Sea', and following the successes of 'The Owl in the Woods' and 'The Hertz Family Reunion', theatre renegades Pummel Squad are coming to fortyfivedownstairs with their third annual pantomime: a raucous celebration of death, hubris, and all we love about theatre.
In her second solo exhibition, ‘Going Where You Take Me’, Micca explores her inner world as a young Australian-Asian woman. Through intricately detailed oil paintings, she creates surreal and mystical landscapes that address themes of identity, emotion, morality, faith, relationships, and social belonging. Her work often combines whimsy with introspection, using symbolism and dreamlike imagery to convey profound emotions and meanings.
In a regional town, grief holds a group of women together. Their bond is fragile – some close, others linked more by memory than friendship. When one of their own announces his transition, loyalties splinter, old wounds reopen, and the meaning of identity and belonging is fiercely contested. Midsumma Festival presents the world premiere of MacEllen’s deeply honest and human play, directed by Kitan Petkovski ('The Inheritance') and featuring a stellar cast.
Following a sellout performance in 2024, The Highly Strung Players return to fortyfivedownstairs with two plays by award-winning author Peter Rose, who founded this absurdist troupe more than thirty years ago. These are rehearsed readings, with a changing ensemble. The Highly Strung Players began appearing at fortyfivedownstairs in 2017.
In ‘Memories; Vivid, False and Lost,’ Alison Russell maps a landscape of memory, examining the fragile, shifting and often contradictory nature of past recollections. Through a process of automatic drawing, she renders vivid or emotionally charged memories with dense colour, intensity, and strong shapes. In contrast, fragmented forms signify blurred, conflicted or lost memories, highlighting their elusive quality.
fortyfivedownstairs is now accepting expressions of interest from artists to participate in 'Punchlines', a group exhibition exploring the use of humour in contemporary art. EOI submission deadline Monday 2 March.
Cameron Grant's photography series 'Australian Theatres Unveiled' celebrates the architecture and heritage of Australia’s major theatre venues. The collection spans front-facing facades through to dressing rooms and backstage wings, featuring theatres from around the country. Each work honours the character of these venues, and the emotional history they hold for performers, patrons, and the community.
A genius with language but convinced of his own ugliness, Cyrano secretly loves the radiant Roxane, who's fallen for the beautiful but inarticulate Christian. When Cyrano offers to ghost-write his rival's seduction, he sets in motion a poignant, hilarious, and ultimately devastating love triangle. Presented by Artefact Theatre Co. and directed by Matthew Cox ('Constellations'), this radical adaptation of Edmond Rostand's masterwork by Martin Crimp features Mark Yeates in the title role alongside a cast of 16! This isn't the Cyrano you think you know.
In her exhibition ‘Independently Combining’, Celia Bridle explores themes of delicacy, intimacy, mobility, and flow through a collection of 24 drawings. The artworks feature curving and sweeping lines that reference the shapes of letters or abstract forms, mingling and weaving with overlapping flourishes. Each drawing is created gradually, building layer upon layer, to form a construction that is both mobile and intensely detailed.
'Whispers Woven in Water, Wings & Wildflowers' is an immersive art installation by Australian visual storyteller Pam Davison, presented in collaboration with couture designer Linda Britten. Combining fine art photography, couture garments, sound, and spatial design, the exhibition explores memory as something lived, embodied, and continually shaping the present.
'Liminal Fields' by Ria Green presents a series of painted works exploring the resonance and affect of the environment on the spiritual, emotional and physical self.
In his latest exhibition, 'Monumental', Mark Bo Chu observes familiar and unfamiliar scenes across Melbourne. Through his gritty and vibrant style, he highlights the magnificence and monumentality that occur at all scales across a city.
Gil is a loser. He works at McDonalds and still lives with Mother. But that’s all about to change because Gil has an ace up his sleeve: the biggest, baddest barnyard bird the world has ever seen. Following the success of 'The Crocodile' and 'Rhinoceros', Spinning Plates Co. collaborate with director Alexandra Aldrich to bring their ‘Beast Trilogy’ to its bloody, feathered conclusion with an “astonishingly entertaining” (NY Times) underdog story for our violent times. You’ve run with the rhino, wrestled the croc, now prepare thyself… it’s time for the cock.
'Summer's Rhythm' by Adele Auchterlonie captures the essence of the Australian summer as an experience that is lived and felt, rather than just observed. The collection draws inspiration from the familiar rituals that define the season. Through the use of light, texture, and mood, these artworks invite you to reconnect with the subtle richness of an Australian summer and the sense of comfort and belonging it offers.
'Punchlines' brings together 38 of Australia’s funniest artists to explore the role of humour in contemporary art. Timed to coincide with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the exhibition highlights a wide range of mediums, styles, and subject matter, united by a shared impulse to find the joke, however silly, subtle or subversive.
After an amazing partnership in 2025, Melbourne International Comedy Festival returns for another venue takeover, presenting Anisa Nandaula's No Small Talk, Chris Parker's Take a Good Hard Look at Me, JKS: a Comedy(?) by Tom Ballard, and Tape Face 20.
'Sea like a mirror' comprises a series of works on paper by Laura Williams which focus on moments of stillness within the natural environment. Each work is inspired by a memory of a specific place and being absorbed in the natural surroundings.
'Gathered' celebrates more than a decade of friendship and creative exchange between Fiona O’Byrne and Lana Daubermann. While O'Byrne’s work remains a meditation on domestic realism, Daubermann’s landscapes explore colour and atmosphere. Together, 'Gathered' is a harmony of two artistic distinct paths that continue to run side-by-side.
Curated by renowned pianist Coady Green, the 2026 festival features a distinguished lineup of musicians, an eclectic array of repertoire, and several world premieres. Shakespeare’s shadow looms large, with musical interpretations by numerous classical and contemporary composers. The two-day Melbourne Mozart Project will also be a highlight, as twelve young pianists perform Mozart’s Piano Concertos before Coady Green and Kevin Tamanini undertake the extraordinary feat of performing Mozart’s complete works for four hands and two pianos in a single day.
In 'Silence in Shadow,' Brian Reberger showcases oil paintings and photography enhanced with gold or silver leaf to capture the essence of Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro. His work explores the tension between light and shadow, inviting viewers to experience the moments of revelation and mystery that arise from this contrast.
In this series of photographs taken in Japan, James Bryans choses to bypass the chaos inherent in big cities, instead observing and experiencing the beauty of fleeting things and the changes of light and atmosphere.
For Chelle Destefano, 'Aural Transferences' is an ongoing process of exploring the memory of sound from childhood as a native Deaf-from-birth person. Destefano has been using her artistic process to meditate on those memories and to transform them into colour, line and movement.
An emerging contemporary artist, Anthea Vayonitis works with dance and meditation practices to create gesturally embodied immersive paintings. “In the silence between our heart beats” is an activation of works that includes the same titled 1.7 x 15m painting that was channelled whilst on a residency in July-August of 2025 in the Blue Mountains.