West Space Studio
West Space provides a fully subsidised studio above our gallery and office, and alongside the community of artists in Collingwood Yards.
Established in 2023, the program offers mentorship, a presentation opportunity, and connections made with peers, collaborators, curators and audiences.
Now
Edwin Devril
Edwin Devril is an emerging artist working across illustration, collage and textiles to explore themes of the body, class, gender and craft.
"Working with West Space will impact on my life as an artist, especially after graduating and now trying to navigate the sector independently.
The residency will provide 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 is in residency April → September.
Previous
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 for the artists, emerging from a shared interest in participatory ceramic and sound, and the way listening, rather than hearing, can cultivate intimacy, subjective interpretation and reflection.
At the culmination of their residency, Aarti and Claire presented Attending To, and participated in The place we do not know is the place we are looking for.
Andrea Illés, 2024
Andrea Illés was awarded a residency as part of our partnership with the Victorian College of the Arts.
Andrea Illés is a performance artist exploring stigma and self-concept. During her recent residency in the West Space Studio, Andrea undertook a mentorship with West Space to develop a multi-part project.
The first iteration began as a durational live-streamed performance, presented as part of Stranger than fiction, grappling with the Sisyphean task of image-making as representation of the self. For three weeks, Andrea performed in her studio, viewable to audiences in-person and on screens in the gallery, our computers and phones.
Tintin Cooper, 2024
Tintin Cooper was on residency at West Space as part of Creative Australia's international program, the Debra Porch Visual Arts Residency.
Based between Bangkok, Thailand and Berlin, Germany, Tintin has shown across the Tate Britain and the Sydney and Bangkok Biennales. Across video, painting and sculpture, Tintin uses humour to explore sport, nationhood, internet culture, and pseudo-spirituality.
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.
Melissa's residency culminated with the presentation of a new new the West Space Window, Water Street by Night, accompanied by an essay by West Space Volunteer Annabel Brown.
Who is in the Collingwood Yards studios? Meet them here.
West Spaces wishes to thank the inaugural West Space Studio Patrons, Melissa Loughnan & Simon Griffiths for their generous support.