For generations of Melbourne artists, Marios Café has been more than somewhere to order coffee and pasta. It has been a meeting place, a gallery, an unofficial office and, for many, part of the fabric of Fitzroy’s creative life.
Now the iconic Brunswick Street café is marking four decades in Melbourne with a major new exhibition bringing together 40 of Australia’s leading contemporary artists.
Running from 23 June to 20 July, 40 Artists – 40 Years will transform the walls of Marios into a multi generational survey of the artists who have shaped, challenged and passed through the venue since it first began hosting exhibitions in 1988.
Curated by artist and Fitzroy local Andrew Browne, the exhibition reflects the long relationship between Melbourne’s visual arts community and the small café that quietly became one of the city’s enduring creative hubs.
“This 40th Anniversary exhibition is admittedly only a partial representation of the successive generations of visual artists who have formed a distinct part of the Marios story,” Browne said.
“But despite the inevitable ‘edit’ it is indicative of the broad range of artists who have found a welcoming spot in Marios embrace.”
Among the artists featured are members of the influential Roar Studios collective, including works connected to the late David Larwill, whose paintings helped define Melbourne’s rough edged artistic identity through the 1980s and beyond.
The exhibition lineup spans multiple generations of Australian contemporary art, bringing together established names and longtime Marios regulars including Rick Amor, Peter Booth, Jon Cattapan, Dale Hickey, Rosslynd Piggott and the late David Larwill alongside artists such as Mia Boe, Sarah Faulkner, Emma de Clario and Meg Williams.
The breadth of artists reflects the café’s long standing role as both a social meeting point and creative refuge for Melbourne’s visual arts community, with many of those exhibiting having shared decades of conversations, exhibitions and late night debates within the walls of Brunswick Street’s beloved institution.
The exhibition also reflects the eclectic nature of Melbourne’s art scene itself, bringing together everything from minimalism and political work through to satire, figurative painting and experimental practice.
For many artists, Marios was where conversations happened after exhibitions closed elsewhere. It became a place where ideas, gossip, criticism and collaboration all collided over coffee and late breakfasts.
As critic Christopher Heathcote noted, even celebrated Australian painter Jeffrey Smart made a point of visiting Marios during trips to Melbourne, reportedly describing the café as “authentic”.
Forty years later, not much has changed about its role in Melbourne culture.
