With just under a month to go until the doors swing open at Melbourne Art Fair, we’re excited to see such a comprehensive line-up of talent, showcasing art in a multitude of experiential ways.
Running from 17-20 February at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, the show comprises 63 leading galleries from around Australia, presenting work for sale from emerging and established artists.
In addition, a series of activations have been revealed including video works, large-scale installations, two experimental rooms and seven panels talks.
On the announcement of the program, CEO and Fair Director, Maree Di Pasquale says: “the fair has never before presented such an extraordinary cross-section of work by the region’s most significant artists, from newly discovered talents to the most collectable in contemporary art.”
Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, One Need Not be a House, The Brain Has Corridors, 2018, stop motion animation. Courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery.
Here are some of the highlights:
VIDEO
A slew of local and international artists has been invited to respond to the idea of ‘place’ as a thematic premise of a series of 11 contemporary works in moving image. VIDEO presented by Subtype, will showcase works that reflect on the lasting impressions by recent collective experiences.
“The single-channel works selected for this year’s fair represent some of the boldest, most imaginative expressions of media art, conveying a sense of the remarkable breadth and depth for current experiments with the medium,” says Nina Miall, curator VIDEO and Curator QAGOMA International Art.
BEYOND
Six large-scale installations will activate the exhibition space. Responding to the notion of Djeembana/Place, curator Emily Cormack says the works set out to question “what this place is when we are without each other”?
Expect to see sculptural interventions and tactile creations. For example, Sean Meilak’s Made for Melodrama, presented by Niagara Galleries (Melbourne), draws on the psychology of space, domestic and public environments. Through a lens of art history and design, cinematic environments are crafted including references to Surrealism and Italian furniture design.
While the entrance foyer of the fair you can expect to see ambiguous tendrilled forms and interactive video works by Caroline Rothwell. Her Infinite Herbarium project, presented by Tolarno Galleries (Melbourne) is a multifaceted work, created in collaboration with Google Creative Lab Sydney, featuring images from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, and transformed by Google’s artificial intelligence and machine learning processes.
The Huxleys. Melting moments 2021. Giclee print. Courtesy of the artists and Murray White Room, Melbourne.
PROJECT ROOMS
Two project rooms offer a non-commercial platform for artistic experimentation and performance. In 2022 artists from Gertrude Contemporary and LAST Collective will use the space to push boundaries.
Plus more
Catch live performances from The Huxleys and Steven Rhall, join Broadsheet for an up late series, grab a drink from the Glenfiddich x Jordan Gorgos pop-up bar and tune in to a series of talks.
Visit melbourneartfair.com.au for full program details and to book tickets. Melbourne Art Fair will run from Thursday 17 – Sunday 20 February 2022.
Habitus is a proud media partner for Melbourne Art Fair – you can pop in and see us at the stand MP1 in the Galleries.
