Bar SK is a local craft beer bar in Melbourne that has been showcasing various types of playful media since 2016, utilising small and unique games that are best suited to an exhibition style setting, even going as far as using custom designed controllers in very… interesting ways.
Bar SK seeks to continue this unique mix of craft beer and video games by commissioning a series of exhibitions that will run over the next 10 months. These exhibitions will feature a range of works from some of the best up-and-coming digital artists that Melbourne has to offer.
Each game is specifically designed to be showcased in the small venue located on Smith Street, Collingwood, with each month to highlight a specific artist along with two supporting works chosen by Bar SK owner Louie Roots.
It is great to see such a passion for the industry as this is currently the only support for creating small scale exhibition-friendly games within Australia. Louie Roots also attributes the success of this endeavour to the many independent brewers that often partner with Bar SK to provide one-off collaborations that help to fund these exhibitions and make this all possible. “It’s great to see independent beer supporting independent arts at such a small and experimental scale”, he says.
The first exhibition that is currently running at Bar SK is themed “Jump”, featuring a work by Zachariah Chandler, a recent RMIT graduate. Their recently developed game “Nth Dimensional Hiker” is currently nominated for a Nuovo award at IGF.
The exhibitions will be hosted by the game’s creators on the first Thursday of each month so be sure to check them out if you are in the area and share a passion for beer, video gaming, and expressing yourself through various forms of media.
The themes will be announced during the year, but the list of artists involved is available here and be sure to follow Bar SK on Instagram.
Are you interested in checking this interesting and unique idea out? You can hear all about Bar SK and their previous exhibition, Artworld, when they were on Checkpoint on JOY 94.9 in August!
About the Author
Justin White
He/Him
Justin is known for being the clown of any group and has spent his entire life playing and collecting video games. When he is not playing video games he is usually hanging out with his two American Staffies named Django and King (after Django Unchained characters) or his son Shia (yes, after Shia Labeouf).
