Grey Gardens Projects Exhibition Space to Open in Fitzroy

With a gallery and performance space, coffee bar and a brand new permanent home for Speakeasy Cinema.
Tom Clift
June 24, 2015

Fitzroy is getting a new multipurpose exhibition space and cafe. Opening next week at 51 Victoria Street, the Grey Gardens Projects will function as a gallery and performance venue complete with its own coffee bar and larder. It’ll also provide a permanent home for Speakeasy Cinema, the once-wandering boutique film club committed to the most esoteric movies around.

Speakeasy will launch their new season in Grey Gardens' 100-seat screening room on Sunday, July 5, with a daytime session of animated shorts from lauded Czech filmmakers Lubomír Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek. Other films in the initial program include the Australian premiere of the low-fi science fiction film For the Plasma, the Marina Abramovic documentary The Artist is Present, and a special screening of the existential Thai drama Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives with a live improvised score by hip hop jazz group 30/70.

The gallery’s first exhibition will be devoted to the works of local audio-video artist Xanthe Dobbie, whose influences range from art and film history to third wave feminism as well as queer and pop culture. Deadpan comedian Magic Stevens will perform his show No Notes No Glory on the evening of Wednesday, July 22, which has been described as something akin to longform beat poetry or a one-sided conversation. Grey Gardens are currently seeking further expressions of interests for the latter half of the year, across the mediums of performance, fashion, design, photography, music, video and beyond.

Worked up an appetite with all that culture? The Grey Gardens Coffee Bar and Larder will be open for breakfast and lunch from Tuesday to Sunday, with a short menu focused on healthy, organic produce. Menu highlights include buckwheat granola, homemade broth and a selection of open sandwiches and smorgasbords, as well as pressed juices from the Greene Street Juice Co. They’ll also have dinner options during Speakeasy Cinema sessions and other evening events, plus a selection of snacks for in-cinema nibbling.

The Grey Gardens Projects are located at 51 Victoria Street, Fitzroy. For more details, including information on how to apply to exhibit work in the space, visit www.greygardensprojects.com.

Image: For The Plasma.

Published on June 24, 2015 by Tom Clift
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