Melbourne Art Fair 2021
Melbourne Art Fair 2021
Australasia’s most progressive forum for contemporary art and ideas, Melbourne Art Fair returns from 4-7 February 2021 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre to present iconic and new works by artists from the region’s most respected galleries.
Melbourne Art Fair is a seminal fixture on the Australasian cultural calendar, stimulating critical and commercial attention for galleries and their artists for over 30 years. The biennial fair supports and promotes Australasian living artists through the staging of a world-class platform for contemporary art.
With this global creative city as a backdrop, the fair returns in 2021 to take up residence at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, continuing its lead role in the region for fostering the development of new audiences for contemporary art.
Melbourne Art Fair is supported by government partners The Australia Council for the Art and Creative Victoria.
Dr Christian Thompson AO, Primeval Sea, 2018, C-type print. Courtesy of the artist and Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin
Fair Program
Experience a fair that is instrumental in shaping the future of art in the region, a progressive forum for contemporary art and ideas. The program will include four days of the very best in contemporary art, public events, talks and performance that provide opportunities to engage with the Australasian art scene.
Commission
Commissioned by HOTA Gallery in partnership with the Melbourne Art Foundation and supported by Artwork Transport, the $70,000 2020 MAF Commission has been awarded to Sri Lankan-born, Sydney-based artist Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran. For the second time in partnership with a regional Australian collecting institution, the monumental site-specific work will be unveiled at Melbourne Art Fair 2021 before moving to its permanent home at Home of the Arts, Gold Coast.
The Melbourne Art Foundation Commission program provides a living artist with a rare opportunity to realise a large-scale work for unveiling at Melbourne Art Fair, which is later gifted to a prominent Australian institution. Previous partners in the program include the Bendigo Art Gallery, NGV, QAGOMA, the University of Queensland Art Museum, MCA, Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Australia; and artists Ronnie van Hout, Michael Parekowhai, David Griggs, Peter Hennessey, Jon Campbell, Ian Burns, and Mikala Dwyer.
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Installation View, False Gods.
Courtesy of the artist and Sullivan + Strumpf. Photograph: Aaron Anderson
Beyond
Making its debut at the 2021 fair, Beyond harnesses the monumental exhibition spaces within the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Carefully curated installations and spatial interventions will fill the epic spaces contributing to greater conversations and presenting opportunities for artists far beyond the art fair stand.
Melbourne Art Foundation supports the inaugural sector by providing a monetary grant to participating Beyond galleries.
Beyond: Galleries & Artists
Hugo Michell Gallery, in collaboration with the Buku-Larrngay Mulka Centre | Garawan Wanambi and Manini Gumana, Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin | Dr Christian Thompson AO, Murray White Room | Constanze Zikos, Neon Parc | Taree MacKenzie, Sutton Gallery | David Rosetzky and The Commercial | Archie Moore.
Image is David Rosetzky, Composite Acts, 2019, film still.
Courtesy of the artist and Sutton Gallery
Project Rooms
Providing a platform for experimentation, Project Rooms showcases the work of artists that push the boundaries of art practice through performance and multimedia works. This year, discover new works from Gertrude Contemporary and LAST Collective.
Conversations
Conversations is a platform for dialogue and the sharing of ideas, bringing together cultural communities and thinkers from across the creative spectrum. The aim: to address the future of art and the contemporary world through a series of talks and panels featuring artists, gallerists, curators, collectors, architects, critics, and cultural luminaries.