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 been finding new ways to explore, create, and engage. And so, after a challenging start to the year, fortyfivedownstairs is excited to announce that we’re moving online with our new exhibition series Fragments.

Each month, fortyfivedownstairs will feature Fragments of an artist’s practice and collection. The exhibitions will unfold over the month via Instagram, and each of the artworks featured in our Fragments series will be available to view and purchase online.

The first of these Fragments, group show HERE, brought together 25 accomplished Victorian artists, and featured work that explores the themes of resilience and growth. The online exhibition included work from artists’ past practices and works that displayed an evolution of creative practice amid the chaos of 2020 – an act of resilience and growth in itself!

The second Fragment is a solo online exhibition by Terry Swann, one of Australia’s foremost contemporary landscape watercolourists. Kimberley to the Pilbara explores the process of creating work that captures the ever-changing sounds and moods of the bush when there’s no option but to stay at home.

Deep and meaningless, the third online Fragments exhibition, 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 fleeting moments that constitute our internal lives in the solitude of a shuttered city.

Visions of Love by Marisa Mu rounded out the 2020 Fragments online exhibition series. The collection of works on paper were all created as an act of defiance against the darkness enveloping us during Melbourne’s second lockdown. As a resilient and self-appointed optimist in “a full-blown love affair with nakedness and womxnhood,” Mu harnesses and channels her learnings, personal reminders and self-love notes taken from this time.