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KINGS Artist-Run

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KINGS Artist-Run

KINGS Artist-Run is a non-profit contemporary art gallery in West Melbourne that fosters emerging and experimental art practice.

KINGS Artist-Run provides a location for contemporary art practice, supporting distinctive experimental projects by artists at all stages of their careers. KINGS assists with and promotes the development of solo exhibitions, group and thematic projects, along with a program of events that includes performance, film screenings, public gatherings and talks.

03/10/2026

🌌️POP-UP OPENING NEXT WEEK THURS 8TH OCT 🌌

Rivermouth is an experimental project in counter-archiving the rivermouth in Naarm, at the confluence of Birrarung, Maribyrnong and bay. The project experiments with art making as a method of historiography to interrupt colonial archives and ways of relating to place. Through various artistic and research practices the project aims to generate a relational, unruly, dis/organised community archive.

Artists:
• Tahlia Palmer
• Tendergrass
• Greta Miller
• Christine Mcfederige
• Jack Mitchell
• The Orb Weavers
• Jinghua Qian
• Lhotse Collins
• Tamar Gordon
- Bo Stiemer
- Petracore Collective
- Anwyn Hocking

Curated by Lhotse Collins

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Rivermouth: Archiving Water
Exhibition runs Thursday 8th - Sunday 11th October

OPENING NIGHT
Thursday 8th Oct, 6-8pm
Collective script reading 'I love the rivers mouth' with Lhotse Collins at 7pm 💛

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🍻 drinks kindly sponsored by and

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Image:

[ID]: an archival photograph of the plan devised by civil engineer Sir John Coode was to cut a wide canal and remove an awkward bend in the Yarra River. The image depicts a deviated river mouth at the top left hand corner, that moves down diagonally into a series of docks, with warehouses clustered around the bottom right hand corner.

29/09/2026

🏁 DRIVEWAY PERFORMANCE THIS THURSDAY 1ST OCT 7PM🏁

We're so excited! Join us this Thursday 1st Oct 7-8.30pm for 'racecar' with Alanna Baxter and Laura Banfield performing with Carlie Shaw and others. Doors open 6.30pm 🏎️

'racecar' is a vehicle for exploring the mechanics of performance, audiences and wholeness.

What happens at the pit stop does not take place on the podium. Did you know an automobile was originally an adjective describing something that could move all by itself? What do you call a text that retraces its steps? No one expects you to answer instantly to questions asked in a car.

When I said it was funny, it was hard to watch. But as Buster says, “[on why he did all his own stunts] stuntmen don’t get laughs”.

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EVENT DETAILS
THURSDAY 1ST OCTOBER
7 - 8.30pm
Doors open at 6.30pm

Please note that lighting will be at a low level during the performance. Please reach out to [email protected] if you have any queries or concerns.

Event is free, registrations via link in bio 🌟

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Alanna Baxter is concerned with repetition, spectatorship and performance as sociopolitical forms: how agency and modes of viewing are produced and reproduced, and what forms of illegibility remain possible within systems that reward visibility.

Laura Banfield works across performance, sculpture, and video, employing sculptural installation and choreographic methods to investigate how the feminine body is fragmented and reimagined through representation, objectification, and spectatorship.

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📸: Laura Banfield and Alanna Baxter, Development image, 2026.

[ID]: an image of a white square with a strip running through the horizon line of car headlights. Imposed on top is the word 'racecar' in red font (all lowercase), with blue shadows behind the lettering which takes up almost the entire image. Above are the names of the performers, and below are the details of their performance.

🍻 drinks kindly sponsored by and

24/09/2026

🪜 DRIVEWAY PERFORMANCE NEXT THURSDAY 1ST OCT 7PM🪜

We're back at it presenting our latest DRIVEWAY performance 'racecar' with Alanna Baxter and Laura Banfield performed with Carli Shaw and others 🧡

'racecar' is a vehicle for exploring the mechanics of performance, audiences and wholeness.

What happens at the pit stop does not take place on the podium. Did you know an automobile was originally an adjective describing something that could move all by itself? What do you call a text that retraces its steps? No one expects you to answer instantly to questions asked in a car.

When I said it was funny, it was hard to watch. But as Buster says, “[on why he did all his own stunts] stuntmen don’t get laughs”.

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EVENT DETAILS
Saturday 21st February
7 - 8.30pm
Doors open at 6.30pm

Please note that lighting will be at a low level during the performance. Please reach out to [email protected] if you have any queries or concerns.

Event is free, registrations via link in bio 🫶🏽

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Alanna Baxter is concerned with repetition, spectatorship and performance as sociopolitical forms: how agency and modes of viewing are produced and reproduced, and what forms of illegibility remain possible within systems that reward visibility.

Laura Banfield works across performance, sculpture, and video, employing sculptural installation and choreographic methods to investigate how the feminine body is fragmented and reimagined through representation, objectification, and spectatorship.

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📸: Laura Banfield and Alanna Baxter, Rehearsal documentation, 2026

[ID]: The performer (Alanna Baxter) sits atop folded ladders folded over like monkeybars. On their ankles are one white and one red bicycle lights that projects as a singular light source onto the floor.

🥂 drinks kindly sponsored by and

06/08/2026

🛻 DRIVEWAY this SAT 8TH AUG 4.30PM 'You can draw me getting run over by a car, if you want,' with E. Salmon & Grace Fuentealba 🛻

'You can draw me getting run over by a car, if you want', speaks to the power ascribed to comics and their illustrators. Unafraid to hide from this power, two drawers (Grace Fuentealba and E.Salmon) unite to fight evil! [...]

In this workshop Grace and E will guide you through devising or adapting characters and text into a four panel comic strip. After laughing, drawing and sharing stories together, we hope you feel inspired and empowered by comics. Open to all skill levels.

EVENT DETAILS
Saturday 8th August, 4.30pm

Event is free, please register via link in bio 🧡

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- In my art I reckon with what I hold. The things passed down to me by the eldest daughters in my family. The line of women who consecutively step out of my mouth when I speak. I wade in the shore when I make, feet planted in the inbetween. Contemplating the ocean beyond me, the one my family crossed when the small men gunned down Allende in office. In it, I see the pteropod, its shell being slowly etched away because humans have changed the chemistry of the ocean. The pteropod is being forced to disappear. I recognise the disappearance.

- My name is E and I am an artist and student of Nyikina and Celtic descent. I live and work on Wurundjeri land, and was raised in Naarm’s northern suburbs. I make string, weld steel, edit video, draw, read and write. I do this to complicate prescribed norms of identity, voice dissent, promote catharsis and undertake intergenerational healing. I have shown at KINGS Artist-run, Incinerator Gallery, 138 Gallery and Trocadero Projects, and have a BFA in Drawing and Printmaking from VCA.

Image: E. Salmon, 'Sketch for shame,' pencil on paper, 2025

01/08/2026

🛻DRIVEWAY INCOMING 🛻

It's been a whole hot minute, and we've taken a bit of a breather as the weather has gotten chillier, but we're so excited to be back with our latest DRIVEWAY event 'You can draw me getting run over by a car, if you want,' with E. Salmon & Grace Fuentealba 🧡

'You can draw me getting run over by a car, if you want', speaks to the power ascribed to comics and their illustrators. Unafraid to hide from this power, two drawers (Grace Fuentealba and E.Salmon) unite to fight evil! Grace and E both found comics through members of their family. For Grace, it was through her abuelito’s Chilean comics, whereas for E it was through her brother’s MAD Magazine collection. Through their lives they’ve turned to comics to tell stories, and recently, as a way to find catharsis. This process is one of love and anger, which is of particular potency in a colony which disenfranchises and disempowers us. Through worldbuilding, what we can’t do in real life becomes possible on the page.

In this workshop Grace and E will guide you through devising or adapting characters and text into a four panel comic strip. After laughing, drawing and sharing stories together, we hope you feel inspired and empowered by comics. Open to all skill levels.

EVENT DETAILS
Saturday 8th August, 4.30pm

Event is free, please register via link in bio 🌟

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Image: Grace Fuentealba, 'Correr mija', etching, chin colle, 2023 (photo)

05/07/2026

🎥SCREENING 'Trayden Thirst: Greatest Hits' SATURDAY JULY 11TH 7PM 🎥

To celebrate the closing weekend of our shows, we will be hosting a screening of E. Salmon's 'Trayden Thirst: Greatest Hits' this Saturday 11th July at 7pm! Doors open at 6pm for bar + snacks and fun activities ✨

There will be outdoor heating but the weather has been getting chillier so we recommend dressing warm and bringing a blanket if you would like some extra warmth ♨️

'Trayden Thirst was born and dead. He lingered and crowded himself on many a club room floors, backyards and fitzroy garage house parties. He stalked like a bitter ex and drank bitterer b**r. Inhabiting a self that was grime but his own.
He served a purpose to remind ourselves where memory lies is where we get to choose.' - excerpt from exhibition essay by Ari Mills

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E Salmon is the VCA recipient of the KINGS Graduate Award 2025.
'Never Can Say Goodbye' continues until Sunday 12 July.

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[ID]: peeking through sheer black curtains is a TV screen hung on a wall playing 'Trayden Thirst: Greatest Hits' (2026), with a pair of headphones hung to the left and a black stool in front of the screen

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🥂drinks kindly sponsored by and

In this half of 2026 KINGS is supported by the 'Creative Projects Fund'

04/07/2026

Our Emerging Curators Program 2026 Callout has finally arrived 😌

This year, the KINGS Emerging Curators Program has been reimagined with the theme 'softly, gently.' The program will provide an intensive 3-month peer-to-peer mentorship program for 4-5 emerging curators. Participants will work collaboratively whilst receiving guidance from KINGS curators and external mentors through a series of workshops and research field trips to work towards a public presentation in our gallery space at the end of the year.

The program culminates in a 4-week presentation period at Kings Artist-Run Gallery from Nov-Dec 2026 as an exhibition-symposia of new works by curators and collectives, reimagining our modes of production through the relational act of listening and rhythms of softness. Supported by excursions and lectures, this project will present the outcomes of our collective research through workshops, publications, exhibitions, public programs (anything you can imagine!)

Applications due 11.59pm Sunday 26th July 🌟

For any enquiries or access requirements please email [email protected]

🩷Excursion friends🩷
• Hyphenated Projects
• La Trobe Art Institute
• VCA The Stables
• Artery Cooperative

For more information or to apply visit the link in bio or apply here: https://forms.gle/rgkkaaV7VjgpQAYa9

Image: Hina Omukai, 'Curating as Listening' (2025)
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04/06/2026

🌟POP-UP ANNOUNCEMENT🌟

We're so excited to be presenting our KINGS x BAHC Curatorial Internship exhibition 'Eternity for women' curated by Mia Bell

'Eternity for women' is a female group show curated by Mia Bell. The show celebrates the work of eleven Melbourne and Queensland based female artists each working across multidisciplinary practices ranging from drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and ceramics.

The exhibition will have an accompanying text written by Scarlett Cunningham

OPENING CELEBRATIONS
Friday 12th June 6-8pm

Exhibition runs Fri 12th - Sunday 14th June

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Featured Artists:

Grace Anderson & Pip Lennon
Mia Bell
Katherine Botten
Cinoo Christina Lee
Sunday Derham
Chloe Hagger
Minnie Nancarrow .na
Carys Norwood
Evie Poggioli
Aurora Sidney .raw.a

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🥂drinks kindly sponsored by and

In 2026 KINGS is supported by the 'Creative Projects Fund'

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[ID]: An unopened bottle of Calvin Klein's perfume 'Eternity For Women' still in its white box. Overlayed in black texts are the artists' names: Grace Anderson & Pip Lennon, Mia Bell, Katherine Botten, Cinoo Christina Lee, Sunday Derham, Chloe Hagger, Minnie Nancarrow, Carys Norwood, Evie Poggioli, Aurora Sidney.

02/03/2026

✨ARTIST TALKS SAT 7TH MARCH 2PM✨

Come along this weekend to hear from some of our artists Sherry Quiambao, Ella Pininta, and Thang Do about their exhibitions with us at KINGS, artwork processes and thoughts behind their works 💚

Drinks and snacks will be provided, come along for art talks and a cosy time 🥰

Event is free, link to register in bio.

Exhibitions open this Thursday 5th March 6-8pm with a special DRIVEWAY performance by from 7pm!

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5 – 29 MAR 2026

① GALLERY ONE: 'Subletspace presents: The Lot show #2,' Arthur O’Neill, Clement Lazzaro, Francesca Havelock, Josaia Byte, Leena O’Luu, Michael Kennedy, Mae Czechowski, Nicholas Currie, Reena Luu, Tun Oo Than, and Zuzanna Michnikowska.

② GALLERY TWO: 'Longitude,' Ella Pininta.

③ STRAY VOLTAGE: 'Between Holding and Letting Go,' Sherry Quiambao.

④ DRIVEWAY: '2026 Alphabet,' Thang Do

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Image credit and description:

[1] Sherry Quiambao, 'What Passes Through the Hands Becomes a Way of Knowing', 2026. In collaboration with Ira Fai (movement/performance), and Apurva Gupta (cinematography). Single-channel video.

Ira is dressed in an indigo dress overlayed with a sheer, white blouse. She wears a netted headpiece of beads, strands fallings across her face as she sweeps the sand on a beach with a walis (broom).

[2] Ella Pininta, 'Longitude,' 2026, installation view.

A collage on the wall with the words 'light step,' 'Float-ing Float-ing' emerging from a bold red line that runs off the wall to the left, as a strip of pink tape runs from the right side of the collage.

[3] Thang Do, 'Alphabet 2026,' (portion)

On a black background are four rounded rectangular blocks of text reading:
A IS FOR ABORTION
B ARE THE BOMBS I UNLEASH ON MY ENEMIES
F IS FULL OF S**T
G IS FOR GOONING

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🥂 drinks kindly sponsored by and

In 2026 KINGS is supported by the 'Creative Projects Fund'

20/02/2026

DRIVEWAY TOMORROW SAT 21ST FEB 7.30PM🌠

We're so excited for tomorrow evening's 'Thoughtful Refusals' with Ali Choudhry 🧠 Can't wait to see you there!

'Thoughtful Refusals' is a conceptual performance artwork which investigates the refusal of contemporary surveillance - where surveillance is defined as the invasion of the basic space of the self. The work consists of a performance of a collage of readings which describe or imagine surveillance. These take the form of fictional works, philosophical works, terms of service for technologies, and also legislature designed to protect the rights of ordinary individuals. This reading performance intersects with a brainwave sensor which showcases the electric signals of the performer’s brain. Finally, an audience is included in the performance.

EVENT DETAILS
Saturday 21st February
7.30pm onwards

Event is free, registrations via link in bio 🎊

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Ali Choudhry is a Melbourne-based artist and researcher working with generative systems, sound, and photographic thinking. His practice explores perception, sensing, and the politics of technology through systems that respond to their environments using sensors, data, and code. Interested in how machines see and interpret the world, he uses biosensors, real-time data, and procedural drawing to surface processes beyond human perception.

📸: Ali Choudhry

🍹 drinks kindly sponsored by and

Address

69 Capel Street
West Melbourne, VIC
3003

Opening Hours

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

Website

http://www.kingsartistrun.org.au/

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