Melbourne Art Fair | 2018 Fair Program

Exhibiting Sectors

Melbourne Art Fair exhibition sectors Galleries and Accent present 40 new and established galleries from Australia, New Zealand and the region, exhibiting a diverse range of artists and curatorial themes through solo presentations and group shows of closely related works.

Project Rooms

The Project Rooms returns to Melbourne Art Fair in 2018 as a non-profit platform for cutting edge art spaces to present experimental work within the context of a major visual arts event.

This year, Project Rooms, presented by Four Pillars Gin and supported by Melbourne Art Foundation and the City of Melbourne, features; Ryan Presley, Prosperity, Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane); Ayesha Green and Cushla Donaldson, (Un)conditional III, The Physics Room (Christchurch); Anxious Bodies for Unstable Environments; Gertrude Contemporary (Melbourne) and Native Hands, Blak Dot Gallery (Melbourne).

Talks

Melbourne Art Foundation and the University of Melbourne, Learning Partner of Melbourne Art Week, present Talks 2018: Space of Friendship during Melbourne Art Fair (2-5 August 2018).

Talks promotes discussion, education and interest in contemporary art practice in Australia and the Asia Pacific region, and will include interviews, talks and panel discussions with a range of speakers including artists, curators, collectors and critics covering topics and issues relevant to the global art market.

LocationFederation HallGrant Street, Southbank, University of Melbourne (opposite Melbourne Art Fair)

Time

TIME is a site-specific video sector taking place across the city of Melbourne.Unveiling a selection of new and recent works by Michaela Gleave (represented by Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne), Jess Johnson (represented by Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney) with Simon Ward, Sriwhana Spong (represented by Michael Lett, Auckland) and Angela Tiatia (represented by Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney), TIME joins with a growing number of organisations focusing their resources on the activities of female practitioners.

TIME is curated by Hannah Mathews (Senior Curator, Monash University Museum of Art) and Rachel Ciesla (Curator and Administrator, Galleries and Programs, Melbourne Art Foundation), and is presented by the Melbourne Art Foundation and supported by Monash University Museum of Art, Buxton Contemporary, Fed Square and QT Melbourne.

Time Artists & Video Locations

Angela Tiatia, The Fall, 2017Location: Buxton Contemporary Monday 30 July–Sunday 5 August, 9.00am–5.00pm

Jess Johnson and Simon Ward, Webwurld (2017) Location: Fed SquareMonday 30 July–Sunday 5 August, 9.00am, 12.00pm, 3.00pm & 6.00pm

Michaela Gleave, A Galaxy of Suns (2016-18) Location: QT MelbourneMelbourne Monday 30 July–Sunday 5 August, 9.00am–5.00pm

Sriwhana Spong, This Creature (2016) Location: Melbourne Art Fairduring Fair hours

Commission

The Melbourne Art Foundation Commission provides a living artist with an opportunity to realise a large-scale work for unveiling at Melbourne Art Fair.

The 2018 Commission by Bendigo Art Gallery in partnership with the Melbourne Art Foundation and supported by Artwork Transport, has been awarded to prominent New Zealand born, Melbourne-based artist Ronnie van Hout. Commissioned for the first time in partnership with a regional Victorian institution, the ambitious large-scale work will be unveiled and exhibited at Melbourne Art Fair before moving to its permanent home at Bendigo Art Gallery.

Ronnie van Hout is represented by STATION (Melbourne) and Darren Knight Gallery (Sydney).

Encompassing sculpture, installation, photography, video and more, his work treads the line between humour and the macabre. Throughout his career van Hout has pursued warped renditions of the self-portrait genre, using his own body as both subject and material. In his work, the body often becomes fragmented, disfigured and alien – yet never relinquishes its comedic inflection. An uncanny proxy, van Hout’s body is both a site of and prop within absurdist narratives leaden with metaphoric entanglements and black humour.

Previous partners in the program include institutions NGV, QAGOMA, the University of Queensland Art Museum, MCA, Art Gallery of South Australia, and the National Gallery of Australia; and artists such as Michael Parekowhai, David Griggs, Peter Hennessey, Jon Campbell, Ian Burns, and Mikala Dwyer.