Staff

Director: Phip Murray is an artist, writer and arts producer. Recent projects include co-curating the interdisciplinary Nightclub projects which featured as part of Next Wave Festival 2008; editorial work on the independent contemporary art journal un Magazine; and a series of articles for Photofile. Her previous employment includes lecturing in contemporary art theory at Swinburne University and experimental animation at RMIT University, and working as Associate Producer for the 2006 Next Wave Festival for which she helped create the artist-run initiative exhibition Containers Village. Phip has completed a Masters degree through RMIT’s Media Arts Department, as well as a Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts at RMIT. Phip is also a new media artist working primarily in drawing and animation. She has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions and screenings including: The Floating World (RMIT School of Art Gallery), While you were sleeping (Kick Gallery), Descore (ACMI), and the ABC’s online animation exhibition Strange Attractors (www.strangeattractors.com.au).

Program Coordinator: Mark Feary is an independent curator and arts administrator. He has been involved with a number of arts organisations including the Venice Biennale, Italy, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, PS1 Art Center, New York, and the Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne. Recent curatorial projects include Life.Death.Thereafter (Silvershot, Melbourne), Structural Decline (Melbourne Art Fair 08), The Devolution Project (West Space, Melbourne and University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba), West Space East (Plastique Kinetic Worms, Singapore), Rules of Engagement (West Space, Melbourne), The Schanck Show (Cape Schanck, Victoria), Relentless Optimism (The Carlton Hotel & Studios, Melbourne), Family First (The Physics Room, Christchurch, New Zealand and VCA Gallery, Melbourne), Modified Terrain (IMA, Brisbane), Neo Noir (Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne), Tougher Than Art (1st Floor, Melbourne).

Board

Penelope Aitken divides her time between arts practice and arts management: she has exhibited painting and installation work nationally and internationally since 1990 and has worked as the Visual Arts Program Manager with Asialink since 1994. She has also curated and coordinated numerous exhibitions and has written and edited catalogues, articles and essays. Her own practice is thematically focused on personal relationships including friendships, romantic liaisons, genealogy as well as the intricacies of cross-cultural exchange.

Suzie Attiwill (chair) is the program director of interior design, school of architecture and design at RMIT. She maintains an independent practice which involves the design of exhibitions, curatorial work, writing and working on a range of interdisciplinary projects in Australia and overseas. Projects include: a matter of time. 16th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial touring Australia 2005 to 2006; tramjatra an interdisciplinary public art project, Kolkata and Melbourne, 2001; and spacecraft an ongoing series of exhibitions and texts. From 1996 to 1999, she was the artistic director of Craft Victoria. Suzie has had quite a long association with West Space. In 1997, she collaborated with Damon Moon in CURATED : an exhibition/project which investigated curatorial practice. The exhibition was accompanied by a forum called JACK HIGH and a special edition of Dialogue on curatorial practice titled Greens. She was also a contributor to Formation and Form: West Space - 1993 to 2003 . Suzie is currently completing her PhD in interior design at RMIT - her research project is titled an interior history.

Ash Keating is a visual artist who predominantly integrates ecological issues into a hybrid art practice. Keating is a recipient of a 2008 Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces Studio Residency and a 2008 Asialink Visual Arts Residency to Ssmazie Space in Seoul, South Korea. Recent and past projects include: 2020? (May 2008), an environmentally focussed art installation at the North Melbourne Meat Market, Parched (2007), a time-based mural on the Mockridge Fountain in Melbourne, Pascua Lama (2006); a diverse media work created in Santiago, Chile as part of 'TRANS VERSA' at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo and 250-hours - work for 1 person / press release (2005-07) exhibited in 'Publicity' at Artspace, Sydney and CACSA, Adelaide in 2007.

Debra Main is the Program Manager at The Myer Foundation/Sidney Myer Fund, looking after the Arts and Humanities and Sustainability and the Environment portfolios. Prior to this, Debra was the General Manager of Melbourne Chorale. In this position, she had responsibility for managing a range of projects and programs, including working with the Board on strategic directions for the organisation, developing community partnerships and furthering relationships with government. Debra has a Bachelor of Music from the University of Melbourne and is currently completing a Masters in Management (Arts and Cultural Management) at the University of South Australia.

Patrick Pound is a Melbourne based artist. His work is held in the collections of the NGV, the National Gallery in Canberra, Auckland Art Gallery, the Museum of New Zealand, the Christchurch City Art Gallery and many other corporate and private collections. He has held over 50 solo exhibitions and been in numerous curated shows in New Zealand, Hong Kong, China, Italy, Malaysia and so on. He is represented by GRANTPIRRIE gallery in Sydney, Hamish McKay Gallery in Wellington, NZ, and Anna Bibby Gallery in Auckland NZ. In 2002 he was featured in the Cambridge edition of The International Who's Who of Intellectuals. In 1995 he featured in the American Biographical Institute's book of Five Hundred Leaders of Influence (Third Edition). He is presently undertaking a doctorate in Art History at Melbourne University, for fun.

Philip Samartzis is co-ordinator and lecturer in Sound within the School of Art, RMIT where in 2004 he completed a doctorate into surround sound in installation art. Exhibitions include; Dodg'em (2006), Grosser Wasserspeicher, Berlin; Unheard Spaces (2004), Candiani Cultural Centre, Mestre; Presence & Absence (2002), Statenlogement, Hoorn; and Transparency (2001), Fondation Cartier pour l'art Contemporain, Paris. He has curated four Immersion festivals, and Variable Resistance - a series of sound art presentations at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Podewil Art Centre in Berlin. As a solo artist he has performed widely in Australia, Japan, Russia, Europe and the United States and has published five solo albums.

Matthew Self is a director of AIGIS Consulting, a company specialising in financial & economic modelling and analysis. Matthew's experience in industry, responsible for financial modelling, strategic reviews, systems re-engineering, and project management, provides West Space with exceptional insight into its financial management and planning. Matthew also pursues an interest in film through his work as a producer.

Rachel Young is a respected arts administrator and project manager who initiates, manages and directs short and long term community and cultural projects and events. Rachel is experienced with operational and organizational concerns in small and large not for profit organizations including museums, galleries, festivals, education institutions and social welfare agencies. Rachel has worked at Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Next Wave Festival, L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival, RMIT Gallery and Heide Museum of Modern Art as well as a freelance curator and project manager.

Committees

A list of past Committee & Board of Management members.