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 (Acting): Kelly Fliedner graduated with Honors in Art History from the University of Melbourne in 2008. The focus of her research has been the introduction of postmodern theory into Australian (in particular Melbourne) art, focusing on journals such as Art & Text, Tension, Vox, On the Beach and Lip. Currently Kelly is completing a Masters in Research, also at the University of Melbourne, considering the interdisciplinary practices of artists from the Melbourne Clifton Hill group during the 80s. Kelly is the Program Coordinator of a regionally-based live art organisation called Punctum and is also Magazine Coordinator for un Magazine, Melbourne’s leading independent, contemporary visual arts magazine. She has been a Program Committee member of West Space since 2007 and writes regularly for contemporary art journals based all over Australia.  

Board

Stuart Geddes (Chair - co-chair with Brad Haylock) runs communication design studio Chase & Galley, and teaches at Monash and RMIT Universities. Previously Stuart was art director of Monument magazine, co-founded design practice Studio Anybody, and co-founded/co-designed Is Not Magazine, which won the Premier's Design Award for Communication Design in 2006, and was nominated for the Design Museum's Designs of the year award in 2009. He was also a councillor for AGDA Victoria for two years, and in 2008 was an international judge on the London D&AD awards in the Newspaper and Magazine design jury. www.chaseandgalley.com

Brad Haylock (Chair - co-chair with Stuart Geddes) is an artist, designer and writer who lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. He is a Lecturer in Visual Communication at Monash University. He holds an Honours Degree in Visual Communication from Monash University and a PhD from RMIT University. He is a member of the Program Committee and the Board of West Space, and the Editorial Committee of un magazine.

Penelope Aitken (Secretary) is a Melbourne artist who has exhibited nationally and internationally since 1990. She was the Visual Arts Program Manager with Asialink between 1994 and 2007 coordinating and touring numerous exhibitions to Asia, managing the arts residency program and writing and editing catalogues, articles and essays. She has also worked at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art as well as a freelance curator and currently works as a website editor. Her art practice is focused on spacial and metaphorical interpretations of personal relationships including friendships, romantic liaisons and genealogy as well as the intricacies of cross-cultural exchange. 

Evan Lowenstein (Treasurer) is Director of Lowensteins Arts Management a company that for many years has specialised in offering accounting and economic advice for artists, arts businesses and organisations.

Suzie Attiwill 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.

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.

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

Program Committee:
Belle Bassin, Kelly Fliedner, Stephanie Han, Brad Haylock (convenor), Alasdair McLuckie, Sanné Mestrom, Phip Murray, Mia Salsjo, Philip Samartzis, Utako Shindo, Kieran Stewart, Kellie Wells.

After Hours Committee:
Philip Samartzis (convenor), Eamon Sprod, Camilla Hannan, Marco Cher-GIbard, Que Nguyen, Phip Murray.

Relocation Committee:
Patrick Pound (convenor), Suzie Attiwill, Geoffrey Emmett (external consultant, Partner at Deacons), Brad Haylock, Phip Murray, John Wardle (external consultant, Principle at John Wardle Architects).

Staffing Committee:
Brad Haylock, Stuart Geddes, Patrick Pound.

Fundraising Committee:
Rachel Young (convenor), Penelope Aitken, Stuart Geddes, Phip Murray, Patrick Pound, Kieran Stewart.

Rebranding Committee
Stuart Geddes, Brad Haylock, Phip Murray.

Volunteers

Marika Nilsen, Tom Sullivan, Helen Paterson.

A list of past Committee & Board of Management members.