Blak Dot Gallery

Blak Dot Gallery is a First Nations artist-run gallery in Brunswick, Melbourne, presenting contemporary work from First Nations artists in Australia and across world Indigenous cultures. Founded in 2011, it places First Nations sovereignty, cultural knowledge and community leadership at the centre of its exhibitions and programs. The gallery works with artists across Victoria and Australia, providing a professional and culturally safe environment for artists to share stories, lived experiences and creative practices through customary, experimental and mixed-media approaches.

Its program extends beyond exhibitions. Blak Dot presents solo, group and community-led shows alongside workshops, performances, panel discussions, lectures, community events and artist markets. The gallery also participates in major arts festivals across Naarm and creates opportunities for aspiring Indigenous curators and arts workers through Blakademy, a learning and research space with hot desks, workshop areas and a substantial collection of local, global Indigenous and non-European diasporic texts.

The current program listed on the gallery’s website includes After Spectacle: Photography, Authority and the Archive by Kirsten Garner Lyttle, running from 1 to 23 August 2026. Using installation, photography and archival research, the exhibition considers how nineteenth-century visual technologies, museum practices and exhibition culture influenced colonial ways of seeing and knowing. Also showing during that period is Reassociate by Japanese artist and illustrator Yasuko Toda, which uses hariko dolls, animation and archival research to examine how popular culture can separate violent histories from their original contexts. A related hariko mask-making workshop is scheduled for 15 August 2026.

Blak Dot’s work is suited to visitors who want to spend time with contemporary First Nations art, as well as people interested in cultural dialogue, research and community-led programming. Its stated commitment to being an inclusive and safe space particularly welcomes women, young people and LGBTQI communities. The gallery’s exhibition program can suit solo visitors, while workshops, talks and community events offer opportunities for shared visits and participation. As a not-for-profit organisation governed by a board, Blak Dot combines gallery presentation with education, mentorship and community connection.