FORM

What could just be a window display along Murray St is actually a surprisingly large art gallery that writhes between Murray and King.
Deceptively large and free to enter, Form offers free exhibitions all year round for anyone interested in seeing local and national artists strut their proverbial stuff in our capital city. Form also have regional and rural specific projects that bring art into our farthest reaches and bring it back to the coastal cities for the rest of us to enjoy, and for the unexposed to gain some exposure.
Perfect if you’re looking for a little top up of your cultural fluids, or maybe even a free day out in the city.

Form is a not-​for-​profit organisation that encourages creativity while providing graduates in the schools of design, the creative arts, architecture and the media a space to share ideas and get the ball rolling on bettering urban and rural development.
Its front of office and foyer is a magnificent tribute to some of Australia’s greatest icons including a two-​foot-​high by five-​metre-​wide kangaroo and fellow emu, painted on mixed media including distressed woods, metal and glass.
The artwork in this place connotes just what Form’s business is about: injecting a little city slickness into our state’s rural areas, and some rustic ethos into our cityscapes.
I like this joint. It’s like the Guggenheim of Town Planning.

FORM is one of the state’s strongest creative forces. It implements, commissions and oversees a range of projects across WA which work to build creative capital. Midland Atelier and the Canning Stock Route Project are just two of its incredibly successful brainchildren, both providing creative Western Australians with opportunities to grow and sustain their artistic practices. With such direction, of course, comes a great deal of creative output, as seen in the exhibitions which routinely feature in the body’s King Street gallery space. FORM gallery features a range of furniture, jewellery and product design work from its Atelier practitioners, as well as various art forms from other creatives under its arm. FORM has an acute eye for local and international talent, there’s beauty to be found in everything this gallery exhibits.

Located down an alleyway off King Street in the King Street Arts Centre, FORM is not the most obvious of art galleries. I happened upon it by chance one day; tearing my eyes away from the shiny window displays of the King Street fashion boutiques, I noticed a sign saying ‘art gallery’ pointing down the aforementioned alleyway. Never one to pass by an intriguing sign, I followed it. What I discovered was a small, contemporary gallery housing an exhibition by Belgian street artist Roa (seen the rat-​like creature painted on the wall opposite the Freo markets? That’s Roa. And it’s a numbat, as I found out at FORM). The friendly guy on duty told me about the artist and the work, then let me wander to my heart’s content. The gallery had become one big installation, with exhibits dissecting the space so that you had to walk through the art to see it. It didn’t take me long to see the whole exhibition; it was a refreshing and thoroughly satisfying little nugget of arty goodness. Next time you’re on King Street, I recommend stopping in here for a cool cultural quickie.