8 Wall Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Owners upon whose unceded lands we live and work. We honour and celebrate the ongoing cultural and spiritual connections to these lands, skies and waterways in which stories, ancestors, and dreamings of First Nations peoples are woven, and pay our utmost respect to Elders past, present, and emerging. This always was and always will be Aboriginal land.
Welcome, we're a new project-based contemporary art initiative, founded and supported by Indigenous women from Oceania, dedicated to igniting artists' practices, knowledge sharing, unravelling and intertwining art and ideas. We're located on Gadigal land in the heart of the Paddington Arts Precinct, alongside the highly respected Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, just above Annette Larkin Fine Art. The evolving space features a diverse curatorial program with ambitious plans to establish a not-for-profit structure that champions emerging, international, and Indigenous artists.
8 Wall Gallery was founded by Sam Houben, a first-generation Australian with European and Māori (Ngāti Kahu & Te Rarawa) diaspora. Sam is interested in concepts of belonging, decolonisation, and engaging with Indigenous knowledge systems, values, and connecting communities. Sam is an emerging curator and a co-chair at Schmick Contemporary. She also runs Samantha Houben Arts Advisory, which takes her between Sydney, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and New York, where she seeks new opportunities to engage with contemporary art. After working in commercial galleries, raising her twin girls and studying art (holding a Bachelor of Art History and Theory, a Master's in Digital Media, and starting a Master's in Art Curatorship), Sam hopes this initiative will offer a new, welcoming way to engage with art in our world today and for future generations.
WHY 8 WALL GALLERY?
[*not affiliated]