West Space Studio
West Space provides a fully subsidised studio above our gallery and office, alongside the intergenerational cohort of artists in Collingwood Yards.
Established in 2023, the residency program offers mentorship from our team and opportunities for peer exchange.
Applications for two six-month residencies in 2026 will open in October 2025. Submissions will be open to artists, curators and writers in Naarm (Melbourne).
Now
Ari Angkasa
Ari Angkasa interrogates posthuman technologies to envision alternative systems of filmmaking and performance art. She is currently exploring the limits of her voice through an abstraction of the microphone performances that have characterised her practice.
Ari is performance curator at Miscellania and has exhibited recent work with Soft Centre, Bangkok Kunsthalle, Institute of Modern Art, and Queer East Film Festival London.
Upcoming performances by Ari Angkasa:
Saturday 4 October, 2pm, at Gertrude Contemporary as part of Songs of Structure curated by Diego Ramírez. Details here.
Saturday 16 October, 6 → 9pm, at Next Wave as part of Poly-rhythmic #6 curated by Aziz Sohail, Liquid Architecture. Tickets here.
Previous
Edwin Devril, 2025
Edwin Devril is an emerging artist based in Naarm (Melbourne). Edwin works across illustration, collage and textiles to explore themes of the body, class, gender and craft.
"Working with West Space impacted my life as an artist after graduating and navigating the sector independently. The residency provided me with the guidance and confidence to establish a sustainable practice and reach an audience and community that I can engage with in a meaningful way.” — Edwin Devril
Aarti Jadu & Claire de Carteret, 2024 → 2025
From a background of group devotional singing and folk tradition, Aarti Jadu seeks to integrate participatory work into contemporary composition and interactive works of art. Claire de Carteret is a ceramicist exploring clay chemistry, technologies, and resonating sculptural form.
Their residency saw the beginning of a process of collaboration emerging from a shared interest in participatory ceramic and sound, and the way listening, rather than hearing, can cultivate intimacy, subjective interpretation and reflection.
Aarti and Claire represented West Space at the 2025 Melbourne Art Fair with Attending To, a work that was also was contextualised within The place we do not know is the place we are looking for in our main gallery alongside artists from across South Asia and Australia.
"West Space is one-of-a-kind — a crucial platform for experimental artists.
During my time as an artist in residence, I felt valued as a peer and friend. The team dedicated unlimited time and attention to our development, encouraging us, identifying opportunities, and sharing resources and industry connections. Their hands-on approach and overall ethos are something I hadn't experienced before." — Aarti Jadu
Andrea Illés, 2024
Performance artist Andrea Illés was awarded a residency as part of our partnership with the Melbourne University's Victorian College of the Arts Honours Program.
During her residency, Andrea undertook mentorship with West Space to develop a multi-part project formed in movement, image and sound both in-person and transcribed in digital spaces.
The first iteration sorry I was so hungry was presented as part of the exhibition Stranger than fiction. Grappling with the Sisyphean task of image-making as true representation of the self, Andrea occupied her studio for three weeks making images with her body. An accumulating score unfolded during gallery hours and on a livestream screened in the gallery and online, where it was viewable 24/7 on our personal devices.
In September 2025, Andrea presents no rock no flower in our main gallery, consolidating her growing reputation as an important new media and performance artist in this country’s cultural landscape.
Tintin Cooper, 2024
Bangkok/Berlin based artist Tintin Cooper was on residency at West Space as part of Creative Australia's international program, the Debra Porch Visual Arts Residency.
Across video, painting and sculpture, Tintin uses humour to explore sport, nationhood, internet culture, and pseudo-spirituality. During her time at West Space, Tintin presented Black Magic in the West Space Window and an artist talk on meme culture as it appears in her practice.
"The West Space residency was one of the best professional experiences I’ve had. The team went above and beyond in their support. They introduced me to galleries, artists, academics, and curators, and provided a space to create and show work in an intellectually and artistically stimulating environment.
They cared deeply not just for me as an artist, but for the local community, wider society, and the issues facing them. The insights and relationships I gained at West Space will shape my future creative projects, and grow connections between Thailand and Australia."
Melissa Nguyen, 2023
Melissa Nguyen was the inaugural West Space artist in residence, awarded a studio in partnership with Melbourne University's Victorian College of the Arts Honours Program.
Working in painting and print-based media, Melissa explores translation and artifice as creative methodology. Her residency culminated with the presentation of Water Street by Night in the West Space Window accompanied by an essay by Annabel Brown on Offsite.
West Spaces extends gratitude to inaugural Studio Supporters Melissa Loughnan and Simon Griffiths.