Based in Naarm/Melbourne, Blindside is a leading platform for new and critical dialogues, contemporary art and bold ideas. Operating as an artist-run initiative since 2004, Blindside prioritizes diverse programming; provides paid opportunities for artists; builds critical exchange; facilitates artist-led development; and promotes cross-organisational partnerships. Expanding the sphere of artistic practice, Blindside’s cross-disciplinary programming contributes to the vibrant arts ecology of the city.
Blindside is a founding and current member of All Conference – a national organising network comprised of 17 artist-led, experimental and cross-disciplinary arts organisations.
History
Pivotal to Blindside’s success has been our location in one of Melbourne’s iconic creative spaces – the Nicholas Building.
In 2004 Renai Grace, Pip Haydon, Simon Koger and Christine Morrow founded Blindside with the objective to make space for local and interstate artists, writers and curators to engage in critical dialogue and creative exchange. Since then, Blindside has consistently expanded with new initiatives, projects and collaborations, to shape the professional development of many artists, writers and curators locally, nationally and internationally.
The annual proposal-based program and Blindside-led project series offer artists, writers and curators vital support and opportunity at critical junctures in their creative and professional practices. Our community is diverse and always growing. The annual program delivers a diverse offering of online and in-gallery exhibitions, events, performances, public programs, education and professional development programs, and mentorships to broad audiences.
Blindside’s growth and artistic direction has been shaped by the collective enthusiasm and expertise of voluntary Artistic Directors, Board, Associate and Advisory members.
Longstanding annual platforms and more recent Blindside initiatives include Debut (since 2005); The B-SIDE / Curtain Call (2007-2016); Screen Series (since 2010); Sound Series (since 2009); Summer Studio (since 2011); Showstoppers/ Blindside Live (2011-2015); Blindside Festival (2012, 2014, 2016); PLAY + PLAY II (2014-2017); (Emerging Curator Mentorship (since 2017); Regional Art + Research Residency (since 2017); First Nations Project (since 2018); Satellite (since 2018); and Mobile (since 2021).
Continued support enables Blindside to offer exhibition space free of charge, extending Blindside’s support to creative practitioners and consolidating our position as an artistic and educational hub.
Blindside is open Wednesday - Saturday 12-6pm.
Closed public holidays.
Ongoing COVID Safety at Blindside
Please take a moment to go through our key behaviours for visiting Blindside galleries. Blindside's approach is in line with Victorian Government guidelines. If you have any questions, please reach out before your visit.
• Hand sanitiser is available when you arrive
• Please stay home if you are feeling unwell
• Safe Access: we understand that some people will require safe and accessible viewing times to experience our programs. If this applies to you please contact Blindside to coordinate your visit.
Blindside maintains a COVID Safe Plan detailing our commitment to protecting the health, wellbeing, and safety of artists, audiences and staff when you come ito our galleries.
Vivienne De Matteis, Chair 2024-Present; Vice Chair 2023-Present; Joshua Edward, Vice Chair 2024-Present; Bryan Rivera (Executive) Treasurer 2024-Present; Fiona Morgan (Executive) Acting Treasurer 2024; Vice-Treasurer 2023;
Emeline Robinson-Shaw (Executive) Secretary 2023-Present;
Madeleine Sherburn (Executive), Grant Coordinator 2024-Present;
Oliver Todd, Media Coordinator 2024-Present, Board Associate 2023; Mia Palmer-Verevis, Public Programs Coordinator 2024; Media Coordinator 2023;
Claire Summers, Marketing Coordinator 2023-Present;
Elizabeth Errol, Fundraising Coordinator 2023-Present;
Ben Y-Yiyu Qin 2024-Present, Sponsorships & Partnerships Coordinator.
Veronica Charmont, Artistic Director 2024-Present; Martina Copley, Chair Artistic Directors 2023-Present, Artistic Director 2019-Present; Caitlin Dear Artistic Director 2024-Present; Ming Liu, Artistic Director 2024-Present; Laura McLean, Artistic Director 2024-Present; Genevieve Pikó, Artistic Director, 2023-Present; Shannon May Powell, Artistic Director, 2024-Present; Siying Zhou, Artistic Director, 2022-Present.
Veronica Charmont is a practising artist, filmmaker and arts worker based in Naarm, Melbourne. She primarily works with analogue film and photography. Her practice documents the intricate nature of memory and time through the creation of images, and explores the obscure coincidences and connections that emerge from being alive. Veronica has exhibited at Blindside, KINGS Ari, Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery, Sawtooth Ari in Lutruwita, and participated in the first online residency for Temporary Position. She has curated online and in person film programs for Milk Gallery, Dogmilk Films and a program from the Victorian College of the Arts Film and Television archive, and has been a member of Artist Film Workshop since 2019. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from the VCA in 2022, and was the recipient of the 2019 Majlis Travelling Scholarship. She is currently studying a Masters of Arts and Cultural Management from the University of Melbourne.
Martina Copley is an artist, curator, educator and writer who does work with art in the annotative space. An apprehension of contingent orders, the work doesn’t have a set form. Sound, idea, object and modality are collated to set up a structural space for something to exist, a space in which the work moves towards an opening and at the same time asks questions about itself. Remarkings as a form of friendship and reauthoring draft a number of situations for thinking about production and exhibition as aside. Martina has exhibited with Bus Projects, RMIT Project Space, Seventh, WestSpace, City & Docklands Libraries, Melbourne Festival and Liquid Architecture. Collaborating with other artists and writers Martina has published work with the Expanded Writers Collective, Runway Journal, no more poetry and Bloomsbury Academic. Martina is Artistic Director Chair at Blindside and lectures at RMIT University, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne and LaTrobe College of Art + Design, Melbourne. Photo Karl Halliday.
Caitlin Dear is an multidisciplinary artist and discursive practitioner with special interests in collectivity, ecosomatics and perceptual experience. Coming from a dance background, Caitlin employs choreographic thinking and embodied approaches across the diverse tendrils of their practice. They create sensorially and intellectually engaging experiences, whether it be an experimental talk, action in a gallery, performance in a theatre or outdoor engagement in a public setting. Caitlin runs public programs hosted at Dancehouse, and has presented work at numerous theatres, galleries and festivals across Narrm and Stockholm.
Laura McLean is a Melbourne-based curator, writer, and researcher. She is Associate Curator at Liquid Architecture; a member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S); and sessional lecturer at Monash University. Laura is completing a PhD in Curatorial Practice at Monash, and holds an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London. Her curatorial projects include Capture All, Liquid Architecture x Sarai, Melbourne/Delhi (2021-2024); CIVICS, Maroondah Federation Estate Gallery, Melbourne (2020); Startup States, Sarai-CSDS, Delhi (2019); The Conversational Cosmos, West Space, Melbourne (2017); Planetary Gardening, Photo Access, Canberra (2017); Behavioural Modernity and Jenna Sutela_Orgs, Artistic Bokeh, Vienna (2015); and Contingent Movements Archive, Maldives Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale and UNESCO, Paris (2013).
Ming Liew is a lens-based artist and a PhD candidate at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Ming's practice draws upon his Chinese-Australian identity, combining ethnography and visual storytelling to examine the immigrant experience in contemporary Australia. Ming holds a Master of Fine Art from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in Melbourne since 2022, including at Blindside ARI, Testing Grounds, Kings Artist-Run, Footscray Community Arts, Incinerator Gallery, Run Artist Run and MARS Gallery. He has been recognised with various awards such as the First Prize of fortyfivedownstairs Emerging Artist Award, Footscray Art Prize (finalist), Incinerator Art Award (finalist), NAVA Ignition Prize, and the RMIT Dean’s Awards for Academic Excellence.
Genevieve Pikó is a Naarm/Melbourne based artist and curator working
predominantly in video and digital collage, using appropriated footage
to explore ideas of gender, memory, time and trauma. Pikó completed her
Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) (First Class) at the Royal Melbourne
Institute of Technology in 2015 for which she received the
Vice-Chancellor List Award. She has shown works in galleries such as c3
Contemporary Art Space, BLINDSIDE and KINGS Artist-Run. Photo Laura Du Vé.
Shannon May Powell is a poet and artist whose work poses gestures of longing towards new possibilities of gender, sexuality and identity in a posthumanist world. Their practice is grounded in the body and relationally activated by the people and places they collaborate with. Their work has featured at the Emerging Writers Festival, Berlin Feminist Film Festival, New York Art Book Fair, Centre for Contemporary Photography, The Wheeler Centre, PHOTO 2022 festival, and the National Portrait Gallery among others. Between 2016-1019 in Melbourne and Berlin they worked as a writer and photographer for i-D magazine. In 2022 they published their debut poetry and photography book, 'Can we rest tonight in the amnesia of pleasure,' with no more poetry. Much of their work was developed during the VARDA houseboat artist residency in California where they were fortunate to be an artist in residence during 2018, 2019 and 2020. More recently they were engaged in the Pocoapocco artist residency in Oaxaca, Mexico where their poetry practice began mutating into more ephemeral mediums of performance art.
Siying Zhou. Born in China, Siying Zhou is a visual artist whose practice draws upon her Chinese heritage and social status as an Asian female immigrant in the West. Through producing predominantly installation works, Siying uses spatial structure and materiality of various media, such as, video, photography, performance, drawings and text, to undertake her research about cultural difference and cultural representation, and to create discussions about ontological issues about Asian immigrants and epistemological experiences formed in the visual art. Siying’s artworks have been exhibited nationally and internationally and also included in private collections. She obtained her Master of Fine Art at the Victorian College of the Art, the University of Melbourne, in 2018.
Loqui Paatsch, Board Associate 2023-Present;
Yi Li, Board Associate 2023-Present;
Umi Otto, Board Associate, Design 2024-Present.
Madeleine Sherburn, Gallery Coordinator 2024-Present, Gallery Assistant 2022-2024; Josephine Mead, Community Coordinator, 2024-Present; Gallery Assistant 2022; Chair of Artistic Directors 2020 - 2022; Sebastian Kainey, Photographer 2022-Present, Lucca De Clario, Gallery Technician 2024 - Present
Thanks to previous personnel:
Martina Copley, Gallery Coordinator 2013-2024; Ming Liew, Gallery Technician 2023 – 2024; Karl Halliday, Gallery Assistant 2022;
Kiah Pullens, Gallery Technician 2021-2022;
Nick James Archer, Photographer 2019-2022.
Maïder Hastoy, Public Programs intern 2024-Present; Alexandra Richardson, Gallery Intern 2024-Present; Natalie De Niese, Gallery Intern 2023-Present.
Blindside thanks previous Honorary Gallery Interns: Stefa Panoschi, Stella Corby, Vivan Qiu,Jen Huang, Gemma Keefe, Umi Otto, Ming Liu, Astrid Mulder, Freda Drakopoulos, Elcatsha, Madeleine Sherburn, Mia Palmer-Verevis, YongPing Ren, Ish Koodah, Jacqueline Matisse, Sarah Lowres, Laura Roberton, Georgia Polichroniadis, Julia Flaster, Chloe Gleeson, Elly-Louise Tyquin, Chloe Herbert-Smith, Jenna Rain Warwick, Siena Di Domenico, Lou Fourie, Monica Do, Rachael Paintin, Yuting Liu, Tess Diaz, Gracie Vincenzi, Henry Law, Alex Walker, Callum Jackson, Timmi Tsapaliaris, Brigid Hansen, Amy Stead.
Thanks to previous Honorary Photography Interns; Roberta Govoni, Talia Carroll, Nina Prendergast, Rubie Bridie, Lou Fourie, Ellie Bracci, Guy Grabowski and Nick James Archer.
Thanks to previous Honorary Public Program Interns; Vivienne De Matteis, Georgia Polichroniadis, Emeline Robinson-Shaw, Ish Koodah and Karima Sulaiman.
Thanks to previous Honorary Artistic Director Secretary Interns; Ming Liu, Carla Abate.
Blindside thanks current volunteers; Katelyn Ferenz, Vivian Qui, Mingzheng Liu, Lilly Skipper, Kristina Veselova, Yeseul Choi, Karen Song, Anna Grace Smith, Alex Langsam, David Paicu, Dom Viggiani, Matt Siddal, Gemma Gale, Gemma Keeffe, Joyce Schmiedel, Kat Campbell, Sarah Dart, Georgia Polichroniadis, Jacquelin Tsui, Nicole Soulsby, Erica Wrigley, Sarah Lammardo, Florencia Sanchez, Shao Hui Kwok, Laura Roberton, Isabella Thornton, Alisha Abate, Evangeline Clark, Tess Diaz, Monica Do, Lou Fourie, Henry Law, Matt Pelaggi and Jenna Rain Warwick for their assistance with gallery invigilation, archive management, projects, events & education programs.
Audrey Thomas-Hayes, Artistic Director, 2023-2024; Ramak Bamzar, (Board Associate, Design 2023); Georgia Cheesman (Public Programs Coordinator 2022-2023); Lauren Zoric (Executive) (Chair 2023, Vice Chair 2022, Marketing Coordinator 2021-22, Media Coordinator 2022);
Ronelle Coetzer (Executive) (Treasurer 2023); Priya Namana (Artistic Director 2020-2023); Sanja Pahoki (Artistic Director 2018-2023); Siobhan Sloper (Executive)(Treasurer 2022-23, Media Coordinator 2019-2022); Olivia Hutchinson (Executive)(Treasurer 2021-22, Vice Treasurer 2019-20, 2022); Lachlan Shields (Executive) (Grant Coordinator 2021 - 2023); Nina Sanadze (Artistic Director, 2022-2023); Sam Ross (Fundraising Coordinator 2022-2023); Georgia Cheeseman (Sponsorship Coordinator 2021-2022); Bethany O'Connor (Secretary 2021-2022); Karl Halliday (Chair 2021-2022, Vice Chair 2021, Grants Coordinator 2020-2021); Josephine Mead (Chair of Artistic Director 2020-2022); Lauren Zoric (Media Coordinator 2022, Vice Chair 2022, Marketing Coordinator 2022); Brittany Barnes (Sponsorship Coordinator 2022, Fundraising Coordinator 2021-2022); Mia Boe (Artistic Director 2022); James Carey (Artistic Director 2018-2022); Bridie Lunney (Artistic Director 2017-2022); Chantelle Mitchell (Public Programs Coordinator 2021, Secretary 2020); Jake Treacy (Artistic Director 2018-21); Elly-Louise Tyquin (Secretary 2021); Chloé Hazelwood (Chair 2020-21, Curator 2020-21, Secretary 2019); Lucie McIntosh (Chair 2017-19, Artistic Director 2017-21, Curator 2015-21, Vice Chair 2016-17, Grants Coordinator 2015-17, Member 2014-21); Salar Niknafs (Marketing Coordinator 2019-21); Josephine Briginshaw (Executive Member 2019-20); Jasmin McNeill (Member 2018-20), Nikos Pantazopoulos (Advisor 2019-20); Hana Vasak (Member 2016-20); Jonathan Homsey (Executive Member 2018-19), Jessica Curry (Executive Member 2017-19); Rachael Paintin (Member 2017-19), Elizabeth McInnes (Member 2019); Eliza Tiernan (Member 2017-19); Tyson Campbell (Member 2019); Ian Macwhirter (Member 2014, Executive Member 2015-19); Verity Hayward (Member 2014-17, Chair 2015-17, Advisor 2017-18); Xanthe Dobbie (Member 2013-15, Advisor 2016-18); Carly Richardson (Member 2017-19); Lili Belle Birchall (Executive Member 2016-18); David Thomas (Advisor 2014-17); Leslie Eastman (Advisor 2014-17); Arvind Vasan (Member 2015-17); Philippa Brumby (Member 2016-17), Brigid Hansen (Associate Member 2017), Tiarney Miekus (Associate Member 2017); Kali Michailidis (Member 2014-17); Andrew Tetzlaff (Member 2008-15, Chair 2010-15, Advisor 2015-17); Claire Anna Watson (Member 2010-15, Chair 2012-15, Advisor 2016-17) Lisa Mansfield (Member 2015-17); Charity Bramwell (Member 2015-16); Bianca Tainsh (Member 2015-16); Daen Kelly (Member 2015-16); Claire Mooney (Associate Member 2015-16); Caitlin Patane (Member 2016); Kate Ellis (Member 2014-15); Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison (Advisors 2014-15); Natalie Kazakis (Advisor 2010-16, Member 2007-09); Raymonda Rajkowski (Executive Member 2012-14); Robert Heather (Member 2006-09, Advisor 2010-15); Paul Kooperman (Member 2015); Shae Nagorcka (Member 2010-14); Felicity Strong (Member 2012-14); Apryl Morden (Member 2013-14); Daine Singer (Member 2006-09, Advisor 2010-13); Blaine Cooper (Member 2011-13); Elise Murphy (Member 2010-13); Jessica O’Brien (Member 2013); Adele Macer (Member 2010-12); Natalya Maller (Member 2008-12, Secretary 2010-11); Julian White (Member 2007-11); Julietta Park (Advisor 2010-11, Member 2009); Drew Pettifer (Advisor 2010-11, Member 2008-09); Jared Davis (Member 2009-10); Hanna Tai (Member 2010); Melanie Upton (Member 2009); Holly Arden (Member 2008-09); Natalie Kazakis (Member 2007-09, Advisor 2007-present); Linda Good (Member 2006-08); Marion Piper (Member 2006-08); Joanna Collyvas (Member 2007); Lenni Morkel-Kingsbury (Member 2007); Jessie Borrelle (Member 2005-07); Olivia Poloni (Member 2006-07); Chris Howlett (Member 2006); Rosie Mahoney (Member 2004-06); Asim Memishi (Member 2004-05); Simon Koger (Founder 2004, Member 2004-07); Renai Grace (Founder 2004, Member 2004-06); Christine Morrow (Founder 2004, Member 2004-06); Pip Haydon (Founder 2004, Member 2004-06).