The regenerative power of spring

It felt like divine timing, walking along Spring Street to arrive at The Hotel Windsor—forced to take my coat off while basking in the sun’s tentative rays—the first Melbourne warmth since early June. I thought to myself, “Spring is here.”

Spring1883, Melbourne’s most immersive and interactive art fair, held amongst the 18th century Victorian decor of The Hotel Windsor is back for its ninth year. With 35 of Australia and New Zealand’s most exciting contemporary galleries checking-in to the historic luxury hotels rooms.

It is easy to draw on the oxymorons of old and new, modernity and tradition, summer and winter. But that is where I think Spring1883 brings its most valuable proposition: the cross section of these extremes, brings an entirely unique and original idea.

The hotel room structure could be seen as rigid, but for the artists and gallerists, this confinement is perhaps liberating. Unable to move any of the existing furniture out of the rooms, and with no drilling, nailing or permanent fixtures, they must incorporate a sense of ephemerality into their installations. Many of the galleries are veterans (returning back to the same room each year), are well acquainted with their spaces. But others, arriving at a new space, bumping in through the night to have it ready for opening festivities.

Sarah Scout Presents (co-founders of the festival) have installed temporary poles that hold Lauren Dunn’s photographic works, Suspicious Skim (2025) and Algorithmic Desire (2025), as room 307’s wallpaper does not hold command strips. While newer gallery, Animal House Fine Arts in room 426, have brought along wooden boards that lean against the walls, displaying a selection of Madeleine Peter’s Left Hand from Portrait of a Man with Carnation (2024) series, Tim Woodward’s Monster (2025) and Benjamin Barreto’s Untitled (2025), oil on linen work. These additions are impressive and work alongside the existing furnishing of the hotel.
Madeleine Peters, 'Left Hand from Portrait of a Man with Carnation' (2024) series, oil, wax and calcite on board. Tim Woodward, 'Monster' (2025), two-way radios required as smoke alarms, ceiling panel steel.

But it is interesting to note, some galleries have embedded the artwork within the Hotel Windsor’s decor, making it simply part of the furniture.

China Heights Gallery from Sydney, have installed Gabriel Cole’s BURIED 1 (2025) underneath the shower that steadily drips water, illuminating the sculpture. While in the dining room, the stacking of tables, creates a podium for Cole’s Smash The State (2025), a glazed earthenware, epoxy bog, enamel and tinted resin piece.
Gabriel Cole, 'BURED 1' (2025), glazed earthenware, epoxy bog, enamel, tinted resin. Ellen Virgona, 'Untitled 3 (Three Women)' (2023), c-type print on canson rag.

Auckland gallery, Föenander Galleries in room 330, has erected Lottie Consalvo’s And it all went silent (2025) on two Pringle packets, snatched from the hotel mini bar. While placing Monica Rudhar’s Red and Crackle Gold Short Hoops (2025), on the Windsor’s light fixtures, as gallerists explained, due to their weight, this could be their only hanging position. Yet somehow, it feels as though these were here all along.
Monica Rani Rudhar, 'Red and Crackle Gold Short Hoops' (2025), glazed terracotta, lsutre, glass beads, and brass. Jess Swney, 'Sir LLD' (2025), hand Tufted Wool on Monks Cloth, framed. Monique Lacy, 'Two Faced' (2025), cardboard, plaster, resin, automotive paint. Nick Herd, 'Studio Roses I' (2025), oil on canvas.

Melbourne gallery Strawberry, with their installation in room 326, is reminiscent of a hotel night gone wrong (right?), as they have adorned the room with clothes, lotions and bottles, crowding Alex Vivian’s, Boom! (2020), oil stick on a ‘filthy bed sheet.’
Alex Vivian, Boom! (2020), oil stick, filthy bed sheet.

All art featured in Spring1883 is at home amongst the historic walls of the Hotel. But it is the galleries that have embedded the artwork by utilising the existing furniture of the establishment, that bring a fresh and completely new vision.

In this context, spring means many things, with co-founder Kate Barber of Sarah Scout Presents, emphasising the fair’s intention to bring a new offering to the art fair landscape. Walking away from the Hotel, I felt lighter and with a renewed sense of passion for the artists and their vulnerability, tenderness and craft imbued within through their works. It made me think that even though things can feel heavy, the seasons will always change— and that this regeneration will always bring new art and new life.

2025 exhibitors include:

  • ALPHA60, Naarm/Melbourne
  • Animal House Fine Arts, Naarm/Melbourne
  • Arts Project Australia, Naarm/Melbourne
  • BAProjects, Naarm/Melbourne
  • CAVES, Naarm/Melbourne
  • CHALK HORSE, Gadigal Country/Sydney
  • China Heights, Gadigal Country/Sydney
  • Darren Knight Gallery, Gadigal Country/Sydney
  • Five Walls, Naarm/Melbourne
  • Föenander Galleries, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland
  • FUTURES, Naarm/Melbourne
  • Haydens, Naarm/Melbourne
  • Jacob Hoerner Galleries, Naarm/Melbourne
  • Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art, Naarm/Melbourne
  • LAILA, Gadigal Country/Sydney
  • Lennox St. Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
  • LON Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
  • MAGMA, Naarm/Melbourne
  • MARS Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
  • Mary Cherry Contemporary, Naarm/Melbourne
  • Michael Lett, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland
  • Murray White Room, Naarm/Melbourne
  • NAP Contemporary, Latji Latji Country/Mildura
  • Neon Parc, Naarm/Melbourne
  • Niagara Galleries, Naarm/Melbourne
  • Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
  • PAULNACHE, Tūranganui-a-Kiwa/Gisborne
  • Project8, Naarm/Melbourne
  • Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Gadigal Country/Sydney
  • Sarah Scout Presents, Naarm/Melbourne
  • Sullivan+Strumpf, Naarm/Melbourne, Gadigal Country/Sydney, Singapore
  • THIS IS NO FANTASY, Naarm/Melbourne
  • Void_Melbourne, Naarm/Melbourne
  • 1301SW, Naarm/Melbourne & Gadigal Country/Sydney.

Spring1883 is at The Hotel Windsor Melbourne until 16 August.

Feature Words by Anna Carlsson