Fragmented Tensions - Blindside
The opening of Fragmented Tensions at Blindside was not somewhere I lingered when I visited on Thursday night. Each year Blindside facilitates an Emerging Curator Mentorship, and this year Ella Simpson was mentored by the gallery’s artistic directors. Charlotte wrote on Simpson’s work when we went to the RMIT Post-Grad show last year but this Blindside show sadly feels far from the success of the artist’s grad show presentation. Fragmented Tensions is a series of works made in response to the Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology at the University of Melbourne, which Simpson has been engaging with for two years as a way of exposure therapy to contamination based OCD.
Bottom Shelf: Venus in Tullamarine with Bec Gynes
We talk broadly about censorship, the death of print media, whether the internet is actually forever, and the shifting tides of Australian art and culture. Ultimately we came to the shared conclusion that while the book is well worth the read, Lindsay’s art perhaps isn’t worth the second glance.
Cristiano, McDermott, Lev Dupain - KINGS
Tucked away on Capel Street is KINGS Artist Run. Truly a working space (something with many branches and powertools was being created right at the front entrance upon my arrival), it still feels like a hidden gem when you make it far enough down the leafy block to glimpse their frameboard outside. More than anything, it feels like a reminder of what the area used to be – industrial, working warehouses between one story bungalows. Currently on show at KINGS are Elijah Cristiano, Anna McDermont, and Parker Lev Dupain, with distinct and disparate works.
Melbourne Sculpture Biennale
Getting to Ballilla Mansion was a trek for me. You’ll notice I usually only write about northside and city centre galleries. But! The Melbourne Sculpture Biennale was worth the visit southside, even just as an excuse to catch up with some friends who live in the area and drag them with me to see the show. Housed in a historic mansion built in 1878, the works are site specific and respond to the house itself. Complete with peeling paint, squeaky floor boards, and phallic stained glass windows, the mansion has clearly seen better days, but its dilapidated charm offsets the contemporary sculptures housed within. I’m not usually drawn to sculptural work, and there were many things in the mansion that I didn’t care for or have desire to spend time with, but there were a few that truly stood out.
Hillvale Photo Trophy 2026- Hillvale Gallery
Hillvale’s Photo Trophy is one of the great equalizing opportunities for artists, in this case photographers, that exist in Melbourne. Bec covered it last year, and in our good tradition of swapping coverage on prizes, I’ve taken it on for its 4th edition. My favourite work, for reasons that also resulted in me dragging my whole family to Roswell, New Mexico, was Nora Merralls’ (0538) alien, standing out against a bubblegum carnival ride background. It’s the type of image I’m endlessly collecting vintage postcards in the hope of finding.
Born Romantic - Aretha Brown
I’ve been a fan of Aretha Brown’s work for years, but was going to give this exhibition a miss due to the $19 ticket price at entry. The aversion to the ticket price comes from two directions; feeling guilty spending my money on anything at the moment, and not wanting to write about a ticketed show. You may have noticed that we’ve consistently avoided writing on Lowbrow about exhibitions which are ticketed (the only exception being art fairs, but they’re their own thing). We want the art we write about to have as few barriers to entry as possible and be as widely accessible as possible. We want to bring art to people not in the arts, and platform the people who don’t have other places to be seen. I’ve made the exception for Aretha Brown though, and I’m glad I did.
Bottom Shelf: Symbionts with Molly Stephenson
Welcome back to Bottom Shelf, Lowbrow’s very own art book club! After a month off, we’re back and in video! Though the written component of Bottom Shelf will always be central to what I want to do with it, the main reason I started Bottom Shelf (and conceptualised it years ago) was to connect with people about art over books. I’ve started off by inviting Molly Stephenson on to talk about her pick, Symbionts. I met Molly a few months ago when we were introduced by Bec at an opening and bonded over our shared love of annotating art books. I first came to know of Molly in 2024 when I bought one of her works from No Vacancy.
Revolver Oil - Secret Chamber
Three Instagram messages, two trams, and one elevator ride were the price to pay for admittance to Melbourne’s newest gallery. The brainchild of Oliver Wood, Amelia Yilan Wilson, and Valeriy Taouk and located in the photography department of VCA, the project takes over a storage nook. The show changes weekly (time permitting) and makes me truly excited for what the kids these days (talented undergrads) are doing. Ostensibly appointment only (open to anyone with a VCA swipe card) the space is genuinely fun, not at all the dank, ominous room its original use would suggest.
Lowbrow goes Highbrow: NEW26 - ACCA
I’m writing this feeling a little bit dusty after our first Lowbrow happy hour last night; a lovely evening meeting irl with some of the people we’ve written about and connected with online. You’ll be seeing more in person events from us moving forward (anyone keen for crit 24th October??) The night before our happy hour however, we were invited to ACCA’s NEW26 opening. Which feels like a big deal - recognition of our work and what we’re doing, the niche we’re filling with our writing and how it ties to ACCA’s newest show.
Lampropoulou, Morris, Power, and White - First Site Gallery
I went to First Site in search of Aleksander Morris’s Memory Tides. I got a taste of the show at this year's Emerging Artist Awards and was keen to see how it would come together in its entirety. I came away loving every moment of the four shows on view at the moment. The through line flowing through them makes it hard to focus on only one. In having them all together in that subterranean space - cool and dry where Melbourne couldn’t decide if it should pour or shine outside, tram rattles and street chatter filtering through the open door - the shows amalgamated, becoming more than their own islands of memory and grief.
A very Lowbrow anniversary
We've been at it for a year (ish. like a high school couple, we have many anniversaries). Please enjoy our first video as we look back on writing about art, what criticism means to us, and what you can look forward to! I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved as Lowbrow so far, and we have so many exciting things still to come. Shout out to both of our Mums for being our biggest fans since day one, all of our wonderful supporters (including two ex-boyfriends), RMIT for bringing us together, and ourselves for making it happen week in week out.
Weightless Matter - Oddaný
We went to see Weightless Matter at Oddaný directly after visiting the Affordable Art Fair. Let me tell you those two experiences couldn’t be further apart even if they tried. But I’m decidedly not going to tell you about the Kmart stock room we found at the exhibition building masquerading as “affordable”, instead I’m going to tell you about Ava Nunan’s poetic responses to Max Frances’ abstract paintings currently on show at Oddaný.
On TikTok as Art
In the absence of any true entry level gallery representation, some of Melbourne’s brightest young artists are best found on tiktok. In the hopes of exploring our truly lowbrow Melbourne art scene, please enjoy the first in what I hope is a series on the creators I am finding most inspiring on your most addictive short form video platform.
To Ourselves - Hillvale Gallery
Warsan Mohammed crafts a palpable narrative about longing and belonging in her solo show To Ourselves. Hillvale Gallery’s walls have been painted a deep burgundy for the occasion, bringing out the rich colours in the photos. In an age where we can hardly see what’s happening in our movies and TV shows with their dark and moody colour palettes, Mohammed’s warm deep colours are heartfelt and true. These are fantastically crafted images that have a depth that’s difficult to create in a still.
On the Road: Redbase, Puzzle Gallery, The Commercial, & Syrup Gallery
Sydney is not a city I spend much time in. Between the ever increasing cost of flights, and that a singular sandwich was going to run me $29, weekend sojourns are not often in the cards. The only thing that could get me on a Westjet flight at 645am is love – platonic, lifelong, very true love. And the promise of an extra day to see as much art as possible. I did go to the AGNSW (and loved the Young Archie and And Still I Rise) and of course White Rabbit, but we aren’t going (that) highbrow today.
Bottom Shelf: The Lonely City by Olivia Laing
Olivia Laing is perhaps the author I recommend to those with a passing interest in art criticism, or just good writing. They capture the essence of things without bogging you down, expanding your understanding without talking down to you. It can be read straight through, or copiously noted and annotated, a starting point to go further. It’s the kind of writing that makes you a better reader, and a better writer in turn for that. Laing’s prose has turns of phrase I want to sink my teeth into: “the glowing clamshells of their laptops”, “the rest are simply openings, apertures”, “palliative to loneliness.” My list could be endless, my notes surely feel that way.
Barcode People, Ongwat, Bartolo-Kanellopoulos - KINGS
KINGS Artist-Run is a gallery we’ve sorely neglected here on Lowbrow for the year we’ve been publishing. The gallery, now solidly a West Melbourne staple, started 23 years ago in the CBD and has a rich history for being the proving ground for many artists who have gone on to be acquired by institutional collections, or come full circle as the lecturers now teaching the current group of exhibitors at art school. Currently on at KINGS are three shows; Pith and Seed curated by Gabriella Bartolo-Kanellopoulos, Surplus Pleasure: Load from last checked point.dat by Barcode People, and Do you remember? by Panisa Ongwat.
Are you lonely tonight? I’m so lonesome I could cry. - ACCA
Beckoning you in is Pao Pao (the goldfish from Kelly Yu’s Endling) set against a white wall, blocking the exhibition from sight. Being on a plinth, against a stark wall, in a sparse tank, Pao Pao is loneliness in its most raw form. Once recovered from my aquatic animal-related existential crisis, I dutifully read the opening didactic (with a prerequisite Olivia Laing quote on loneliness supplementing the introduction) and finally faced the cavernous hall. ACCA feels almost supernaturally massive inside; a size and scale well suited to an exhibition capitalizing on loneliness, and the inherent connection we all have through those moments.
Emerging artist award 2026 - fortyfive downstairs
It feels very full circle to be writing about fortyfive downstairs’ 2026 Emerging Artist Award. Even though Charlotte was the one who covered the show last year, there’s a certain joy in Lowbrow being back at the same exhibition a year later. We’re growing and we’re evolving but we’re still focused where we want to be; on the emerging artists and their work. Equally, it’s gratifying to see some of the artists that I’ve written about before being included in this show: Ruinscape by Grace Mitchell which I wrote about in Held, Altered at No Vacancy, and also face of an orchid by Tara Howe which I wrote about in silently, childhood’s crystalline paths sank in the garden at Oddany gallery. That was the third ever post on Lowbrow, and now I’m seeing Howe’s work again over a year later, and loving even more on second viewing the delicate orchid made softly solid.
ENOKi, Hede, Kuo, & Puspasari - Counihan Gallery
Counihan Gallery, on Sydney Road in the heart of Brunswick, is a council gallery for the people. Currently on view are four shows, each entirely their own: Colour My World by Joshua Hede, Not a fine artist, just a "fine" artist by Judy Kuo, Mulana by ENOKi, and Things I Carried Quietly by Nani Puspasari. The exhibitions did not feel connected, but they did not need to be. Counihan knows their space well enough that each holds its own, no encroaching or overshadowing, despite the airiness of the gallery.
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