- EN
- 中文
Project8
project8 is a contemporary art space in Naarm /Melbourne’s CBD committed to expanding aesthetic languages of speculative poetic and material innovation through curated exhibitions and related events.
project8 foregrounds the multimodal languages of contemporary art to experientially deemphasise differences and contestations grounded in conventional language, politics and culture.
project8 promotes exchange, collaboration and partnerships for Australian artists, researchers and communities actively engaged in contemporary art and discourse.
project8 presents selected artist projects and group exhibitions.
Kim Donaldson: principal Curator
Kim Donaldson has worked nationally and internationally for over four decades as an artist and curator. As an Associate Professor at VCA Art, Faculty of Fine Arts & Music, University of Melbourne she previously worked for project8 with Sean Lowry as Cūrā8. She has been integral to the development of the gallery’s unique style that functions in a dynamic and mutually responsive relationship between the roles of artist, curator and theorist. This stance foregrounds aesthetic languages and modalities of poetic and material innovation in art and curatorship. Kim Donaldson employs an “artist as curator” model to explore values of creative collaboration and experiential knowledge transmission grounded in aesthetics, spatial relations, and material form. Kim Donaldson is proudly associated with Arts@Collins International Gallery Pty Ltd for project8.
Cūrā8
From 2022 – 2025 Cūrā8 led the curatorial program for project8 as a curatorial collective created exclusively for the gallery. Kim Donaldson and Sean Lowry as Associate Professors at VCA, Faculty of Fine Arts & Music, University of Melbourne, joined forces to cultivate new artistic and curatorial partnerships between local and international art worlds and research cultures. During this time Cūrā8 produced original curated exhibitions, texts, artworks, performances and related events. Cūrā8 was supported by a Collaborative Research Agreement between Arts@Collins International Gallery Pty Ltd and University of Melbourne.
Gallery Staff
JIAYANG (BETTY) ZHANG is the founder and Executive Director of project8 and Managing Director of Arts @ Collins. She is also an accomplished musician and vocalist with an innate passion for art developed from an early age. In 2022, together with the support of her mother, and University of Melbourne Associate Professors Kim Donaldson and Sean Lowry as Cūrā8, she established project8 to realise a dream to present new artistic forms as exhibitions that transcend challenges and antagonisms born of cultural difference. From 2022 – 2025, Cūrā8 led the curatorial program at the gallery. In 2026, project8 entered a new chapter with Zhang as Assistant Curator developing the exhibition program with Kim Donaldson. Zhang holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree (Economics and Finance), graduating from the University of Melbourne in 2022. Zhang is fluent in Mandarin and English.
CHAOHUI XIE is an artist who works closely with project8 to assist with installs and exhibition programming. Xie began her art journey in 2011 with a Diploma of Visual Art at RMIT University majoring in painting and photography. She later developed her artistic practice and professional experience through a Bachelor of Fine Art (2015), and a Master of Contemporary Art (2017) at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. Since graduating, Xie has made contributions to the art community as a curator and artist in numerous exhibitions. Xie is fluent in both Mandarin and English.
GABRIELLE HALL-LOMAX oversees project8’s Communications and Social Media, supporting the gallery’s exhibition and public programs. She is a visual artist working in photography. Her artwork considers the unseen social, symbolic and psychological structures that shape lived experience. Drawing on folklore and mythic traditions, she questions the belief systems that underpin contemporary culture. Hall-Lomax holds a Master of Arts and Cultural Management from the University of Melbourne and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from RMIT University.
MAGDA CHING is a Gallery Assistant at project8. After two decades working as a fashion stylist and producer in Sydney, and with a longstanding interest in contemporary fashion, art, design, lifestyle, travel and food, Ching has developed her taste and ideas across a broad range of interests and experiences. Now living in Melbourne, she brings this wealth of diverse lived experience and knowledge to the gallery. Her unique eye, and rich intercultural and internationalised understanding of both popular and niche cultural contexts, forms an invaluable part of the team at project8.
INDIA MACKIE is an artist who assists project8 with exhibition installation and lighting
LUCY FOSTER is an artist and exhibition and event photographer for project8
ZACK YU is exhibition and event videographer for project8
