Omnific Assembly

about

The story of OA

Omnific Assembly was founded in 2005 to fill a void in the Melbourne artistic exhibitioning community. Although group shows are common, they are usually born from artists who went to school together or who are represented by a gallery and often they are organised by or through a specific gallery or artist-run space. It is rare to see more than one group show curated by a specific artist. in other spheres of the artistic universe, this is not the case.

In the theatre world, artists will come together to form a company and then create show after show, often utilising the same actors and designers again and again. In the music world, musicians will form bands and will keep coming back to work with the same talent over and over. In the dance world, dancers and producers will create companies to produce performances. But in the art world, it seems that unless an artist is attached to a gallery, be it running or being represented, artists are very much on their own as far as exhibitions are concerned.

In 2002, artist Sayraphim Lothian joined a Melbourne award winning theatre company, theatre in decay, and watched with fascination from the inside as they created performances in collaboration with a wide range of artists from many different artistic realms. While this happens often in the theatre world, it dawned on Sayraphim that it rarely happens in the art world. And thus Omnific Assembly was born.