fortyfivedownstairs

fortyfivedownstairs fortyfivedownstairs is an independent Melbourne based theatre and gallery located in Flinders Lane
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NOW OPEN: ‘Endless Drawing’ by Michael Fikaris.Michael Fikaris will be installing a mural in the gallery, viewable while...
14/06/2025

NOW OPEN: ‘Endless Drawing’ by Michael Fikaris.

Michael Fikaris will be installing a mural in the gallery, viewable while in progress this week until the opening night on Friday June 13, 5-7pm.

The exhibition will continue until Saturday 21 June 2025.

Opening hours: Tuesday-Friday 12-7pm, Saturday 12-4pm.

Image credits: ‘Drawing Space’ installation view, 2025. Photographed by George Jefford.

Fikaris

Bloomsday in Melbourne opened Circe's Carnival of Vice last night, set in the fever-dream world of Monto - Dublin’s noto...
13/06/2025

Bloomsday in Melbourne opened Circe's Carnival of Vice last night, set in the fever-dream world of Monto - Dublin’s notorious red-light district - in James Joyce's 'Ulysses'. Check out these production pics by Jody Jane Stitt, featuring the wonderful costume design of Zachary Dixon. The show runs until Sun 22 June.

BOOKINGS: https://fortyfivedownstairs.com/event/circes-carnival-of-vice/

NOW OPEN: ‘Drawing Space: minus and plus’ by Suzanne .k. Franklin.You are invited to the opening celebrations tonight fr...
10/06/2025

NOW OPEN: ‘Drawing Space: minus and plus’ by Suzanne .k. Franklin.

You are invited to the opening celebrations tonight from 5-7pm.

The exhibition will continue until Saturday 21 June 2025.

Opening hours: Tuesday-Friday 12-7pm, Saturday 12-4pm.

Image credits: ‘Drawing Space: minus and plus’ installation view, 2025. Photographed by George Jefford.

FLASHBACK: 2022 & 2021 Winners of the Emerging Artist Award2022 Prize Winners: Rhys Cousins (), 'Pixel' and Madeleine Jo...
09/06/2025

FLASHBACK: 2022 & 2021 Winners of the Emerging Artist Award

2022 Prize Winners: Rhys Cousins (), 'Pixel' and Madeleine Joy Dawes (), 'In My Mind (the voices that tear me apart)'
Highest Commendation: Jae O’Donnell, 'we are made to be held'
People’s Choice Award: Ryan Pola (), 'Wild Scorpia I’m Grieving'

2021 Prize Winners: Jacklyn Foster (), 'We have food at home' and Noah Spivak (), 'Only Us (good pain)'
2021: People’s Choice Award: Imogen Kerr (.kerr_), The bubbles beneath the surface

Now in its tenth year, the Award has become a catalyst for continued recognition and professional development. Many past recipients have gone on to exhibit in solo and group shows, both nationally and internationally. This year, a selection of works will be chosen for a two-week exhibition from July 8 to July 19, 2025, held across our two gallery spaces at 45 Flinders Lane.

The Emerging Artist Award 2025 is proudly supported by Equity Trustees Charitable Foundation – The Cuming Bequest, Future Leaders, Bambra Press and MSC Signs.
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FINAL DAYS: 'fragmentum' by Brenton HillThe exhibition will end this Saturday 7 June.Opening hours: Thursday-Friday 12-7...
05/06/2025

FINAL DAYS: 'fragmentum' by Brenton Hill

The exhibition will end this Saturday 7 June.

Opening hours: Thursday-Friday 12-7pm, Saturday 12-4pm.

Image credits: 'fragmentum' installation view, 2025.

FINAL DAYS: 'RITUAL OF THE SENSES' by Steve Leadbeater.The exhibition will end this Saturday 7 June.Opening hours: Thurs...
05/06/2025

FINAL DAYS: 'RITUAL OF THE SENSES' by Steve Leadbeater.

The exhibition will end this Saturday 7 June.

Opening hours: Thursday-Friday 12-7pm, Saturday 12-4pm.

Image credits: 'RITUAL OF THE SENSES' installation view, 2025.

Opening next week: 'Endless Drawing' by Michael FikarisExhibition opening: Friday 13 June, 5-7pmExhibition runs: 10 -21 ...
04/06/2025

Opening next week: 'Endless Drawing' by Michael Fikaris

Exhibition opening: Friday 13 June, 5-7pm
Exhibition runs: 10 -21 June 2025

Artist Statement:
Endless Drawing is a new exhibition of automatic drawings inspired by a recent trip to the Wakka Wakka regions (Bunya Mountains, QLD).
While my art practice moves through many techniques, it begins most days, outside with nature, automatically drawing onto paper.

Automatic drawing, also known as automatism in art, is a technique where artists suppress conscious control over the creative process, allowing the unconscious mind to guide the drawing.

For this exhibition, I will be revealing processes as part of these automatism techniques, installing a mural in the gallery, beginning Monday June 9, viewable while in progress that week until opening night of Friday June 13.

This is an opportunity to see many of these automatic drawings together in one place with a selection of recent paintings, prints, sketchbooks made from this same process.

Fikaris

Opening next week: 'Drawing Space: minus and plus' by Suzanne .k. FranklinExhibition opening: Tuesday 10 June, 5-7pmExhi...
04/06/2025

Opening next week: 'Drawing Space: minus and plus' by Suzanne .k. Franklin

Exhibition opening: Tuesday 10 June, 5-7pm
Exhibition runs: 10 June - 21 June 2025

'Drawing Space: minus and plus', a collection of small-scale drawings by Perth based artist Suzanne .k. Franklin (aka sue.k.).

With the intent to open the experience of viewing to one that’s unhindered by narrative, each work exhibited as part of 'Drawing Space: minus and plus' depicts a sphere, or spheres, and a horizon line only. While minimal in what is presented, these, along with the surface marks found in most, become the tools to negotiate the complexities of space, time, and the emotive power of colour and image. Conventional means with which to apply narrative are negated leaving nothing but a pure experience of what is before, the material substance of the work.

The approach taken in the production of these works, and the framing choice specific to the aesthetics, lead to a blurring of multiple boundaries. Layering of colours and marks in a similar way found with painting leave the boundary between drawing and painting precarious and in question. This is compounded by the choice to frame to the edge of the work without the traditional mounting on matboard found with drawings, while still placing the work under glass, as is traditional in drawing work. The antiquated wide scoop style of the dark timber frame with its high edge lends itself to a removal of temporal positioning, a removal of time. This is further enhanced with the absence of narrative in the pictorial space and the painterly approach to application of the medium, they too allow a positioning of time and experience of space that is not now. Yet in contrast, the abstract presentation of sphere and line heralds modernity and brings in to play a tension between contemporary and bygone and unveils a dichotomy wi

Image credit: 'Sphere No106', Suzanne .k. Franklin, 2024, inktense pencil on Fabriano Artistico 300gsm paper (100% cotton), 30cm x 30cm (framed).

Next week, Bloomsday in Melbourne return to fortyfivedownstairs to present 'Circe's Carnival of Vice', a wild carnival r...
04/06/2025

Next week, Bloomsday in Melbourne return to fortyfivedownstairs to present 'Circe's Carnival of Vice', a wild carnival ride inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Reimagining Joyce’s “Circe” episode as a surreal, comic and subversive response to the sexologists of his day, and blending b***y pantomime with biting critique, this original work is a playful yet pointed exploration of enchantment, desire, power, and gender.

BOOKINGS: https://fortyfivedownstairs.com/event/circes-carnival-of-vice/

Congratulations to the finalists for our Emerging Artist Award 2025!Their artworks will be exhibited at fortyfivedownsta...
03/06/2025

Congratulations to the finalists for our Emerging Artist Award 2025!

Their artworks will be exhibited at fortyfivedownstairs from 8 - 19 July 2025 for the Emerging Artist Award exhibition.

The Emerging Artist Award 2025 is proudly supported by Equity Trustees Charitable Foundation – The Cuming Bequest, Future Leaders, Bambra Press and MSC Signs.

.com.au .bebold

Address

45 Flinders Lane
Melbourne, VIC
3000

Opening Hours

Tuesday 12pm - 7pm
Wednesday 12pm - 7pm
Thursday 12pm - 7pm
Friday 12pm - 7pm
Saturday 12pm - 4pm

Telephone

+61396629966

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A multi-faceted creative hub

Centrally located in the heart of Melbourne’s theatre district, fortyfivedownstairs is one of Melbourne’s most renowned creative spaces. As an unfunded and not-for-profit organisation we support independent, experimental and thought-provoking art forms, striving to make money for artists — not from them.

We welcome you to visit our galleries and theatre at 45 Flinders Lane.