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Thursday 12pm - 5pm Friday 12pm - 5pm Saturday 12pm - 5pm Sunday 12pm - 4pm

Blak Dot Gallery

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Blak Dot Gallery

BLAK DOT GALLERY is a contemporary Indigenous run Arts Space that showcases artworks of world Indige

Wheel chair access is available via the front and side (facing public area) of the building. Saxon St is a private Street, car parking is available opposite the Brunswick baths on Dawson St or street parking in the area. PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Trams stop (Route 19, Stop 21) located either side on the corner of Sydney Rd and Glenlyon Rd/ Dawson Rd Town Hall/Brunswick Baths/Mechanics Institute. Bus Route

506 - Moonee Ponds - Westgarth Station via Brunswick

Train: Upfeild Line - Brunswick Train Station

Bike racks provided.

$///\\\///\\\Opening event: Saturday 29 August, 2pmWith a special performance by West Papuan activist and performer, Kote...$

21/08/2026

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Opening event: Saturday 29 August, 2pm

With a special performance by West Papuan activist and performer, Koteka Wenda and friends.
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Join us to celebrate the opening of Lesley Wengembo’s ‘The Papua New Guinea Sublime: Landscape Paintings & Representations of Identity’
- an exciting new body of work shaped by lived experience, cultural memory and the enduring relationship between people and place.

🔗 in bio for more info about the exhibition.

All are welcome, light refreshments provided. See you there!

Lesley Wengembo
Koteka Wenda
painting_rmit

$This Saturday 22 August from 2pm!///\\\///\\\///\\\Join us for the closing weekend of our dual exhibitions ‘After Specta...$

19/08/2026

This Saturday 22 August from 2pm!
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Join us for the closing weekend of our dual exhibitions ‘After Spectacle: Photography, Authority and the Archive’ by Kirsten Garner Lyttle and ‘Reassociate’ by Yasuko Toda.

Exhibiting artist Kirsten Garner Lyttle will share insights into the research and photographic processes behind the exhibition, exploring the historical representation of Māori through photography, archives and nineteenth-century exhibition culture.

Your chance to hear directly from Kirsten and discover more about the ideas, histories and processes that shape the exhibition.

All images in tile are courtesy of Kirsten Garner Lyttle:

Image 1:
Jay Reneti and Kayla Tukere, 2026
Tin type Plate (Ferrotype), 10.6 × 12.7 cm,
Edition: 1/1

Image 2:
Te Matariki Shrina Moehau Kokiri–Heuerea and Jodene Kokiri, 2026
Tin type Plate (Ferrotype), 10.6 × 12.7 cm,
Edition: 1/1

Image 3:
Teowaina Te Rito–Tawhi, 2026
Tin type Plate (Ferrotype), 10.6 × 12.7 cm,
Edition: 1/1

Image 4:
April Pokino, 2026
Tin type Plate (Ferrotype), 10.6 × 12.7 cm,
Edition: 1/1

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This is a free public program event as part of ‘After Spectacle: Photography, Authority and the Archive’, which has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia with the support of Blak Dot Gallery.

08/08/2026

❕Last spaces available, get in quick! ❕

Hariko is a familiar craft in Japan, used for folk toys and traditional crafts. Originating in China, hariko and its western equivalent papier-mâché, became a versatile craft technique used all over the world.

Using the hariko technique featured in ‘Reassociate’, Yasuko will guide participants through making small decorative masks for wall hanging. We’ll be pasting torn pieces of paper one by one.

Let’s enjoy creating the rounded shapes characteristic of hariko!

If you have any paper you’d like to use, please bring it along as you can experiment with the material. Thinner paper is easier to work with.

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When: Saturday 15 August, 2-4pm
Who: Best suited to ages 12+
Cost: Free, but spaces are limited to 10ppl

Link in bio to book.

☁️ Yasuko Toda

06/08/2026

We’re excited to announce the last of our Winter Night Screens artists as part of Around the Block: Tony Aitorea & Pierra Van Sparkes✨  Screening period: 6 August - 16 August  ///\\\ Blak Dot Gallery entrance: ///\\\  Pierra Van Sparkes - baal ga, 2026 🔥
balga is the grass tree to my Noongar family.
balga was unearthed from boodja to the east.
baal is she and he and it all at once; the sound that calls for me.
A gift from mooditj moort; roots singing for release.
balga will burn before they will grow.
baal ga’s light touches all that I know.
Pierra Van Sparkes

 ///\\\ House façade: ///\\\  Tony Aitorea — Hotomai, 2026 
Hotomai showcases the initiative of the Hotomai Cultural Village in Honiara, Solomon Islands, which envisions preserving and sharing the traditional ways of living of the Birao people of Guadalcanal Province. Hotomai reflects an ongoing effort to keep traditions alive for future generations while inviting audiences to engage with the richness and resilience of Solomon Islands culture.
AitoVisuals
  Join our friends at Next Wave from 6pm tonight for an Exhibition Tour of video works by the third group of Around the Block artists including Aarushi and at Next Wave , Jack Hodges at Michelle Guglielmo Park and Lily Houbert at Counihan Gallery

27/07/2026

We’re excited to welcome you back to the gallery this Saturday for the opening event of two new exhibitions, with a special Welcome to Country and Smoking ceremony by Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Elder Colin Hunter.

~ GALLERY 1 ~

‘After Spectacle: Photography, Authority and the Archive’ by Dr. Kirsten Garner Lyttle examines how photography, museum practices and archival histories have shaped colonial ways of seeing through installation, photography and archival research.
Kirsten Garner Lyttle

~ GALLERY 2 ~

‘Reassociate’ by Yasuko Toda considers the ways in which contemporary visual culture disconnects histories of nuclear warfare and colonial violence from their original contexts, reconnecting past and present through hariko dolls, animation and archival research.
Yasuko Toda

Blak Dot Gallery
Saturday 1 August
2-4pm
Free entry, light refreshments provided, wheelchair accessible, all welcome 🖤

Exhibition dates: 1-23 August 2026

Link in bio for more info.

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‘After Spectacle: Photography, Authority and the Archive’ has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia with the support of Blak Dot Gallery.

24/07/2026

We’re excited to announce our next Winter Night Screens artists as part of Around the Block: Vicente Barriga and Michael Jalaru Torres ✨

Screening period: 24 July - 6 August

Blak Dot Gallery entrance:

Vicente Barriga - ‘i tried to meditate but it was hard’ (2026) follows a one-way journey across continents, weaving together memory, landscape and ancestral voice in a meditation on belonging, spirituality and home 🦢

House façade:

Michael Jalaru Torres — Burn 2022
Mother Earth burns as scars tattoo across her skin, her life-giving flow dried to dust. Her tears are salty to the tongue as her voice burns red. She cries out to those willing to listen to her song. Using the moving body layered with fire, Burn evokes the cries of wind, water, and fire echoing across a timeless Country 🔥

Join our friends at Next Wave from 6pm tonight for an Exhibition Tour of video works by the second group of Around the Block artists including Kimberley Summer and Wenmiao Xin at Next Wave, Camille Perry at Michelle Guglielmo Park and beingbaker at Counihan Gallery.

Blak Dot Gallery and Next Waves’ Around the Block programming is supported by Merri-bek Arts Flourish Arts Grants 2025-2026.

vicente barriga
Michael Jalaru Torres
Next Wave
Counihan Gallery

Images courtesy of the artists.
House façade image: ‘Watching Our Country Burn as She Cries’, 2022. Michael Jalaru Torres.

08/07/2026

We’re celebrating NAIDOC and 50 Years of Deadly with Blaktasia opening Around the Block: Winter Night Screens 2026 series tomorrow night! 🖤💛❤️

Blaktasia honours five decades of First Nations creativity, storytelling and cultural strength through bold world-building and visionary futures. Experience two new video works showcasing what the wider Blaktasia Game team has been creating as they continue to expand the deadly First Nations fantasy world that is the Blaktasia Universe.

Rug up and bring the family along, stay warm by the fire pit with mulled wine or hot koko while the kids enjoy treats with the outdoor program - there’s something for everyone!

🌜Opening event: Thursday 9 July, 6pm
• Welcome to Country by Thane Garvey
• Artist talk and walks led by Blaktasia Projection Collective at Blak Dot Gallery, Astrid Mulder and Charlie Lee at Next Wave, Andrea Draper at Counihan Gallery, and Badra Aji at Michelle Guglielmo Park.

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Around the Block is an outdoor screens program in partnership with Next Wave, Counihan Gallery and Michelle Guglielmo Park, supported by Merri-Bek Council Flourish Arts Grant and Little Projector Company.

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Slides 2-3: Opening night of Around the Block 2025 walking tour, Blak Dot circle window featuring ‘Look to See’ 2024, April Phillips. Image credit: Tom Noble Creative.

$///\\\ Exhibition extended to Sunday 5 July ///\\\Good news! We have extended our current exhibition ‘We Built A House O...$

26/06/2026

///\\\ Exhibition extended to Sunday 5 July ///\\\

Good news! We have extended our current exhibition ‘We Built A House Out of Water’, which will now show until Sunday 5 July - you’ll have an extra week to visit the gallery and experience this stellar body of work by lens-based artist, Peta Duncan.

As we come to the closing weekend, the artist will hold a special floor talk sharing the ideas and creative processes behind ‘We Built A House Out of Water’. Following the talk, Peta will lead a hands-on cyanotype workshop where participants will have the chance to experiment with one of the techniques featured in the exhibition and create their own cyanotype prints to take home.

See you there!

Artist talk: Saturday 4 July, 2pm
Workshop: Limited spaces have now been exhausted

~ This is a free public program event as part of ‘We Built A House Out of Water’ exhibition, supported by Centre for Contemporary Photography and Blak Dot Gallery ~

Peta
Centre for Contemporary Photography, Australia

Slides 2-3: Courtesy of the artist

29/05/2026

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Thank you Aunty Barb.

This is our final weekend of We Should Be Seen, We Should Be Heard: The Photography of Aunty Barbara McGrady
What a beautiful show to finish reconciliation week with.

Gallery hours
Tuesday - Saturday 12-5pm
Sunday 12-4pm

Deepest respect to Aunty Barb for your vision, legacy and unwavering commitment to truth-telling through the lens 🖤💛❤️

 .foley.goorie      

Video Credit: .clague

28/05/2026

Feeling grateful for everyone who came along last Saturday and shared space with us for such a heartwarming, engaging and deeply insightful conversation.

Thank you to the incredible panel, Prof. Gary Foley, Dr. Eugenia Flynn and Wayne Ludbey, for helping place Aunty Barb’s work and legacy in the context of her peers and contemporaries, and for the important reflections on recognition, visibility and the realities faced by Black women artists and storytellers.

Deepest respect to Aunty Barb for your vision, legacy and unwavering commitment to truth-telling through the lens 🖤💛❤️

So special to gather in celebration of ‘We Should Be Seen, We Should Be Heard’, which is now in its last days of showing - closing this Sunday ✨

foley.goorie

Image credits: Sumitra Vignaendra .vignaendra

Address

33 Saxon Street, Brunswick
Melbourne, VIC
3056

Opening Hours

Thursday	12pm - 5pm
Friday	12pm - 5pm
Saturday	12pm - 5pm
Sunday	12pm - 4pm

Telephone

+61474328370

Website

http://www.blakdot.com.au/

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