Artist Collectives

The Pitcha Makin Fellas is  a collective of artists, writers and musicians based in Ballarat who are deeply  passionate about culture and community. They have risen to prominence by  creating vibrant expressions of their personal histories and stories as Aboriginal men, while gradually cultivating relationships with one  another and developing a distinctive working style centered around  painting. Utilizing acrylic paint and employing techniques such as large  cut-outs and stamps, the Pitcha Makin Fellas produce art that narrates  stories through vivid patterns inspired by the environment, Aboriginal  history, and the historical mark-making traditions of southeastern  Australia. Since their inception in 2013, the group has achieved  numerous notable milestones, including solo exhibitions and the  acquisition of their artwork by both private and public institutions,  including the prestigious Monash University Museum of Art and National Gallery of Victoria. 

Ladies, release your shrew...

ShrewD Collective is a group of five ShrewD female artists. We assemble, weave, weld, paint, sculpt, draw, and write, maintaining our autonomous artistic styles, and then bring these together to form something entirely unique.

While operating primarily as an arts peer support group, this nurturing intent extends through our work into the wider community. Our collective objective comprises inhabiting various sites and spaces through which we can design and deliver projects that encourage social engagement. Our experience as arts practitioners is enriched through meaningful interactions with the public, encouraging us to consider audience participation as integral to the making of art and community building.

We believe that during times described as "challenging" at best, we each have the power to undertake small but significant positive actions. As one collective of many, we aspire to contribute to a grassroots movement towards building and reinforcing a sense of social cohesion and belonging.

Founded in 2019 by Aida Azin and now led by Catherine Ortega-Sandow and MJ Flamiano, Saluhan is a Filipinx/o artist collective based in Naarm. Saluhan was created to establish a network between creatives in Australia and the Philippines and has since expanded to include collaborative projects that combine arts and community development. Their practice is underpinned by notions of kinship, reciprocity, and the desire to create spaces that interweave artistry and community.

Saluhan has previously facilitated Saluhan: A Filipino Community Arts Event (2019) for makers, artists, musicians, and local community in Melbourne, Adelaide and Quezon City (PH); Dialekto (2022) a series of artist-led workshops at Siteworks; Silog Project (2023), cooking and printmaking workshops at Bridge Darebin; Radical Hospitality: Kain Na Tayo! (2023) in collaboration with Next Wave; and A Taste of Home (2023), zine-making workshops led by Stephanie Ochona as part of NGV’s Melbourne Art Book Fair satellite program. 

Most recently, they launched Pagbasa Archive, an experimental archive of contemporary Filipino art, design, texts, sound, performance and video in Naarm/Melbourne, currently based at SEVENTH Gallery.

London Alternative Photography Collective (LAPC) was founded by Melanie King in 2013, and has grown from a small group of analogue and alternative photography practitioners to a collective which produces large-scale symposiums, exhibitions and workshops. The collective is currently directed by Melanie King and Hannah Fletcher and supported by project managers; Constanza Isaza Martinez, Katrina Stamatopoulos, Martha Gray and Diego Valente.

LAPC is an open collective, which anyone can inform and work within. Open to artists who have ideas for projects, LAPC has always been about promoting the accessibility and creative possibilities of analogue and experimental photography. We aim to support practitioners who challenge traditional ways of using photography to reflect on contemporary issues and provide a platform for skill exchange. The premise of the open collective allows a wide range of artists, photographers, makers, curators and theorists to guide the activities of LAPC in a democratic way, enabling practitioners to swap ideas, skills and foster collaborations. We also have a specific interest in contemporary art which revitalises antiquated and forgotten processes, encouraging tutorials and recipes to be shared so that these processes do not die out with time.

In-Kind Collective is an emerging artist collective, exploring ways of making and sharing together — in kindness, through generous and generative exchanges. To ‘In-kind’ is an open invitation; to be attentive to new art kinships both materially and interpersonally, and to find ways to gently support each other’s artistic practices in the current social, political and economic climate.

Concurrently, through these practices of support and empowerment, we begin our work to reclaim notions of ‘in-kind’ in the arts, which is frequently understood as unpaid labour. We ask if giving and receiving—between artists, audiences and materials—can be a means to restore, care for and foster collectivity rather than deplete and exhaust the artist and her practice.

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Several artists from In-Kind Collective met through a sister group, the Parakind Collective. We are grateful for this meeting place and acknowledge the contribution Parakind has made to our emergence.