Next Wave

Todays the day!!!! Don't miss out on this huge cast! @moxiedelite @randyroydrag @bigrichardenergy_drag @thebansheesworld @dannydiscodrag @silviodibaci Tickets in the Bio! Please reach out if you are having any issues due to the cost of the ticket. Supported by @next_wave . This project is supported by Arts Merri-bek through the 2024-2025 Flourish Arts Grant Program. @artsmerri_bek @merri_bekcitycouncil

A little more of a sentimental post! Here is to those people in your life that support you ❤️ For me, it has been so sweet to have my mum have pride in my performing. In a show like It's Camp it is silly, goofy but there is also so much heart at its core 💗 This weeks show is going to be silly, unique but also rich in friendship 👑 I am so appreciative of everyone who has contributed to this show! Join us at the Brunswick Mechanics Institute THIS SATURDAY!!! 9th May 8pm

EOIs for the 2026 'Around the Block' program are closing tomorrow! We thought we'd take a second to throwback to last year's 'Around the Block' (fka 'Winter Windows') works: Axel Garay, 'Sik' Our past consumes our future, rolling around the oceans, choked in our garbage. Our footsteps form and decay, and yet our trash remains, in great plastic detail for centuries after us. Sik [pronounced seek] is a two channel video portrait series grappling with a future land filled with our trashy remains. How do our descendants weave our garbage into the folklore of the future? Axel Garay (Meriam/Puerto Rican/Malaysian) is an emerging queer First Nations interdisciplinary artist and storyteller working with the still and moving image. He utilises digital video, installation and alternative photographic processes to explore themes of technology ethics, desire, spirituality and human psychology. Liwen Lian, 'Nightfall' Drawing from Islamic mysticism, Christian allegory, and Chinese cosmology, Nightfall questions the boundaries of reality in an age where digital illusions blur truth. The artist’s digital twin Salima Iman Khair al-Din traverses the liminal space between worlds—human and machine, seen and unseen, the tangible and the dreamed. Liwen Lian is a Hui-Chinese 回族 visual artist, designer, and community arts labourer. Their practice explores how visual and material culture—objects, technologies, and environments—shape, distort, and re-imagine identities and notions of humanness. @liwen_lian Submit an EOI to be part of the 2026 'Around the Block' program by Friday 8 May! Link in b i o for details. __ Image descriptions: In Axel's work 'Sik', hooded figures in red t-shirts and white pants walk across a blue shore, waves can be seen breaking in the background under a blue and purple sky. In Liwen's work, 'Nightfall' you can see a figure in a flowing white dress, their face is concealed by a veil. The lighting low and tinted red. #digitalart #videoart #movingimage #nextwave #artistopportunities

Vale Christopher Bell. It is with great sadness that we share the news that Christopher Bell passed earlier this year. Christopher served on Next Wave's board from 2006 to 2010 and played a significant role in shaping the organisation years under the leadership of Marcus Westbury and Jeff Khan. “Christopher Bell was a great supporter of Next Wave during a critical stage of its evolution and a formative stage of my career and the careers of the many emerging artists I will always appreciate that and I know that I am not the only one who will greatly feel his loss.” – Marcus Westbury. His legacy continues to resonate through the fabric of Next Wave today as we continue empowering and advocating for early-career and experimental artistic practice in Australia. ___ Image descriptions: 1. A photo of Christopher Bell. He wears a collard shirt and straw hat. He is looking away and laughing, smiling broadly. There is also text that reads 'Vale Christopher Bell' 2. This tile contains the quote is a quote from Marcus Westbury, as above.

Our launch was CAMP !! and we can't wait to do it all again on Saturday with a whole new cast 👀 come on down and have a boogie with us at the beautiful Brunswick Mechanics Institute 🕺🕺🕺 see you there! This project is supported by Arts Merri-bek through the 2024-2025 Flourish Arts Grant Program Proudly supported by @next_wave #dragking #dragshow #itscamp #whatsonmelb

One week left to apply for Around the Block! There are nine opportunties for emerging and early-career artists across Australia working in moving image, in two locations: 1. Next Wave 2. Michelle Gugliemo Park Around the Block, a six-week screening series that transforms the facade of Next Wave’s building and unfolds along Brunswick’s artistic precinct. Link in b i o for all the details. ___ Image descriptions: 1. This image has text that reads 'AROUND THE BLOCK EOIs close Fri 8 May' 2. This image has text that reads 'There are nine opportunties for emerging and early-career artists across Australia working in moving image. In two locations:' 3. This is an image of the front of Next Wave's venue, Brunswick Mechanics Institute. There are two pairs of screens (four in total), each pair is highlighted with a red box, showing where each screening space at Next Wave will be. 4. This is an image from Around the Block/Winter Windows at Next Wave (Brunwick Mechanics Institute) in 2026. It is artist Liwen Lian's work, 'Nightfall', 2025. One screen is a shimmery galaxy of red light. The other screen shows a person in a flowing white dress. 5. This is an image of the 260 Sydney Road Projection space at Michelle Gugliemo Park. There is one screen, also highlighted with a red box. 6. This is an image from Around the Block at Michelle Gugliemo Park. It is artist Linda Loh's work 'Golden Mist', 2024. It is a graphic work of warm colours and beams of light.

Next Saturday!!! Ready for a campy time? Come to the drag show that is earnest, silly and camp! Another huge cast! @moxiedelite @randyroydrag @bigrichardenergy_drag @thebansheesworld @dannydiscodrag @silviodibaci Tickets in the Bio! Please reach out if you are having any issues due to the cost of the ticket. Supported by @next_wave . This project is supported by Arts Merri-bek through the 2024-2025 Flourish Arts Grant Program. @artsmerri_bek @merri_bekcitycouncil

Not sure what to get your mama for Mother's Day? Bring your mum to It's Camp 😍 Established in 2023, this show was set up as a rejection of the pressure to have a certain image, to make acts that are commercially viable and critical of the exclusion of kings/things on many lineups. Featuring: @moxiedelite @randyroydrag @bigrichardenergy_drag @thebansheesworld @dannydiscodrag @silviodibaci Tickets in the Bio! Please reach out if you are having any issues due to the cost of the ticket. Supported by @next_wave . This project is supported by Arts Merri-bek through the 2024-2025 Flourish Arts Grant Program. @artsmerri_bek @merri_bekcitycouncil

Next Wave is recruiting a Venue Operations Manager to support our work at Brunswick Mechanics Institute. The new role will be responsible for oversight and delivery of technical production and venue management. Next Wave operates Brunswick Mechanics Institute with the support of Merri-bek City Council, and has secured a tender for the building for up to nine years. Located in the heart of Bulleke-bek/Brunswick, home to one of Naarm/Melbourne’s largest and most vibrant creative communities, Brunswick Mechanics Institute is a vital engine room for artistic development and public exchange. Want to be part of our small but mighty team? Apply by Monday 11 May – visit our website for more information, link in b i o. ___ Image description: This image contains text that reads 'Next Wave is hiring: Venue Operations Manager'. There is also a photo of artist Leon Rodgers and his work 'Gulan'. Leon sits behind a laptop showing an animation of a cave system. That animation is projected onto a screen in the background. Leon Rodgers, Gulan, 2025, Next Wave, Brunswick Music Festival, Naarm/Melbourne. Courtesy the artist. Photo by Simon Fazio.

2 Weeks Till It's Camp 😘 Another huge cast! @moxiedelite @randyroydrag @bigrichardenergy_drag @thebansheesworld @dannydiscodrag @silviodibaci Tickets in the Bio! Please reach out if you are having any issues due to the cost of the ticket. Supported by @next_wave . This project is supported by Arts Merri-bek through the 2024-2025 Flourish Arts Grant Program. @artsmerri_bek @merri_bekcitycouncil

Exciting news! We're expanding our Around the Block EOI. Next Wave will be taking over the 260 Sydney Road projection space at Michelle Gugliemo Park. This means there will be three additional opportunities for early career artists across Australia to screen works – nine opportunities in total across the program. Around the Block is a six-week screening series that transforms the facade of Next Wave’s building and unfolds along Brunswick’s artistic precinct. EOIs will now close Friday 8 May. Link in bio for all the details. ___ Image descriptions: 1. This tile contains text that reads 'New opportunity! Around the Block' and an image from Winter Windows, 2025, showing people viewing a d duàn's 'Speculative Hybridity' work at 260 Sydney Road. Courtesy the artist. Photo by Tom Noble. 2. This tile has text that reads: Next Wave will be taking over the 260 Sydney Road projection space at Michelle Gugliemo Park for Around the Block. There are now nine opportunities available for early-career artists across Australia to share works on Next Wave’s screens or the offsite projection space. 3. This tile has text that reads: EOIs extended to Fri 8 May

This week only! Listen back to @salaamradioshow to hear artist talks from the 'compost : compose' public program curated by Rasha Tayeh (@beiteshai ). Presented at Next Wave earlier this year, the public program included a discussion facilitated by Shalini Kunahlan, who asks artists DT (@bammadt36 ), Sarah Iman (@_itsarah ), Mwaffaq Al-Hajjar (@mwaffa_lines ), mohamed chamas (@mohamedchamas_ ) and Ysk (@ysklightspeedchamber ) about the role of the arts, artists, and storytellers in this rotten world of ongoing genocide, war, climate crisis and social unravelling. The discussion expands to how their work responds to Rasha Tayeh’s project and the broader themes of 'compost : compose'. Link in bio to listen. The show will only be available until this weekend – so don't wait to tune in! The 'compost : compose' public program was presented in collaboration with @blindside_ari for their Emerging Curator Mentorship. ___ Image description: This is a photo of poet mohamed chamas at the 'compost : compose' live performance curated by Rasha Tayeh. They wear a black robe and tend to a censer (incence burner). Purple and red light illuminates mohamed's face and tints the cloud of smoke that rises from the censer. Photo by @darren.gill