MYGALAXI Gallery | Art Market | Events - Basement, 39 Dixon St

MYGALAXI is a new, unique, versatile & totally different (& very cool) art & event space located in a prime pedestrian area in the cultural hub of Wellington, New Zealand.

Roger Morris exhibition: The Failure of Imagination
Opening September 11th 2010

MYGALAXI Art Market #4 poster

MYGALAXI ART MARKETS

Market #4 - Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th September 2010 - 11am-5pm both days.

There are many great stalls confirmed for this event, but we are still looking for new and interesting stalls to make the market bigger & better. The focus is on art and handmade items, with comix, CDs, jewellery, photography and whatever else as long as it's not imported crud you can get elsewhere.

MYGALAXI Art Market is what the Frank Kitts Market would like to be but just totally isn't. It's a far cooler & much more interesting alternative.

The Market will be a monthly event at MYGALAXI. There will by live music and vinyl DJs operating during the market weekend.

Claire Harris is the market organiser, so please email her if you're interested in having a stall, or just generally interested in the market.

COMING UP at MYGALAXI:

• Film evenings coming soon
• Kids art show & auction Sept 5th
• Roger Morris exhibition - Sept 11th
• Art Market #4 - Sept 25th & 26th
• MONSTERS group exhibition - Oct 5th - Sneak preview - work in progress
• Interior design, photography, architecture exhibitions, Nov-Dec 2010

Previous Exhibitions & Events:

MYGALAXI ART MARKET #2

Saturday 24th July 10am-5pm

Bigger and better than the first one! The Art Market is now a monthly event running Sat & Sun - see above.

9th June 2010: EDGE OF THE GRID
Installation by JAMES VOLLER & ROBIN AITKEN
OPEN: Sat 17th, Wed 21st, Fri 23rd, Sat 24th (last day)

www.lunchroomtakeout.com - James Voller's blog - pics of Edge of the Grid

MYGALAXI ART MARKET #1

Saturday 10th July 10am-5pm

The inaugural art market, now a monthly event

13th June 2010 - Sunday Suite:

Little Bark, Joanna Minster, Jess Chambers

1st May 2010 - The Urban Tramper recruitment event.
Photos of this event on Facebook, taken by Dominika Zienlinska

Friday 2nd to Tuesday 6th April 2010 - Comics Weekend 2010 - running over Easter at The Basement.
This is the comics event to see in Wellington. Features The Eric Awards, book launches, Tim Bollinger, Dylan Horrocks and more - see blog.

NZ Comics Weekend blog     Tim Bollinger article    Dylan Horrocks article

25 Feb - 5 March 2010: and nothing stirred

This is an installation by Thomas Murphy involving sound cancellation, video delay psychosis and a fan-o-tron. See www.headchip.net for background info.

Finge link: www.fringe.co.nz/visual-arts/and-nothing-stirred

February 2010: set of 'Goldilocks and the three queers', a Fringe Festival play.

Scoop story     Fringe listing     Gay NZ review

Artists

We are looking for expressions of interest from exhibiting artists, performance artists, poets, installation artists, and those wishing to have a stall to sell their own creative products at our monthly Art Market.

MYGALAXI Gallery lends itself to relatively low-volume performance art, poetry, installation sculpture, projection etc. It is definitely not your conventional gallery environment. It offers something totally different that Wellington has thusfar lacked.

If you are an artist, craftsperson, producer of comix, CDs, badges, or whatever that would go well on a stall or an area of wallspace, please get in touch (email below). Stalls and space will be cheap. We are looking for sellers and makers of interesting, individual handmade items, definitely not imported, manufactured trash.

The venue has also been used as a location for film, video & photo shoots, fashion shows, product & book launches, student exhibitions and more besides. Facilities are minimal or non-existent, but hey, it's budget. We're open to your ideas.

History

Rediscovered in April 2009, the rooms under 39 Dixon Street had suffered decades of misuse as a junk depositry for businesses located on the floors above. Despite leaky pipes and no electricity, the atmosphere was surpringly not damp or musty. Three large skiploads of junk were removed.

Further, there seemed to be a presence of some kind. The team from Strange Occurrences investigated, and this was covered by TV3's Nightline news programme - video clip September 2009. The investigation is ongoing.

A while ago, Mongrel Mob prospects had broken in and made the place into Party Central. The grafitti was their doing. There is also a rumour that the rooms were used as some kind of church. Any further information to substantiate this would be appreciated.

Way before that, before reclamation, when the shoreline was much closer, the area was the centre of Te Aro Pa. Te Aro Park (formerly Pigeon Park, just across Dixon St) commemorates that history of the land. The Waimapihi Stream, which ran from the valley at the top of Holloway Road, used widen out and prepare to enter Wellington Harbour - Te Whanganui a Tara - right where the public toilets are now located. The Waimapihi Stream was piped in the 19th century and still runs close to 39 Dixon St. Perhaps it is this history and the presence of the stream that gives Mygalaxi its unusual energy and atmosphere.

Contact:

The team at The Basement are:

• Arlo Edwards - the Director & curator, the guy you really need to talk to. Often can be found at MYGALAXI - basement, 39 Dixon St.   Cellphone: 022 647 6272

• Claire Harris: organiser of MYGALAXI Art Market - email Claire

• James Gilberd - the Producer, staying pretty much in the background. He will talk to you if Arlo is nowhere to be found :-)
  James can usually be found just up the road, upstairs at Photospace Gallery, 37 Courtenay Place.

Email: j.gilberd at xtra.co.nz   Phone: James at Photospace Gallery, 04 382 9502 or cell: 027 444 3899

Photo: Arlo Edwards, MYGALAXI director & curator.

See the recent Capital Times article profiling Arlo.            www.capitaltimes.co.nz