We’ve met a lot of first-time collectors at art fairs. People who didn’t come to buy anything until something stopped them in their tracks. Maybe it was a photo that made them pause. A painting that brought back a memory. A sculpture that made them feel something they couldn’t explain. That’s the thing about art: when it’s right, it knows before you do.

This year, Gotham Studios Collective returns to the Affordable Art Fair Melbourne for its fourth consecutive year, with its largest and most diverse showing yet. Led by multi-award-winning photographer Lisa Saad, the collective has grown to feature seven incredible artists, each bringing a unique voice, story, and visual language to the fair. It’s our biggest, boldest booth to date and one you won’t want to miss.

Elise weaves together paint, textiles, and drawing to tell quiet, powerful stories, especially those of women whose voices were left out of history. Her work feels like memory stitched into fabric. She works between a city studio and the country, and her pieces carry both solitude and strength.

David’s photographs feel like stepping into nature and pausing just long enough to actually see it. From mountaintops to wildlife in motion, he captures wild places with reverence. Every frame is planned, every detail intentional and always, there’s a deep respect for the natural world.

Francesca’s work is filled with symbols - life buoys, cacti, upward spirals. Her textured paintings are like visual meditations, quiet and grounding. In a fast-paced world, she’s creating art that invites you to pause, reflect, and reconnect with what matters.

Through her whimsical alter ego George the duck, Sheng Yi explores identity, culture, and her inner world with honesty and play. Her work is part visual diary, part philosophy lesson and you’ll probably leave the fair thinking about a duck in a whole new way.

Sebnem’s richly textured paintings hold memory and emotion in layers of vibrant color. Her work explores love, loss, and everything we carry through life’s changes. It’s deeply personal, but always inviting you in to find your own story in the paint.

You’ll want to lean in for this one. Luca’s miniature gallery sculptures invite you into tiny worlds where small figures stand in awe of art. They’re delightful and deeply human—a quiet nod to the way we all want to be seen, even in the smallest moments.

Lisa is the creative force behind Gotham Studios Collective and the reason we’re now seven artists strong. She’s been leading this collective to the Affordable Art Fair for four years straight, growing it into a space for fresh voices and bold ideas.

You’ll recognize her from her standout series, The Anonymous Man, which explores identity and place through cinematic digital art. She’s also bringing Quadrilateral Thoughts, a collection of layered photographic composites that read like small dreamscapes, and Alphabetica, where she’s blending AI with decades of photography to uncover new ways of seeing.

Lisa is also launching her latest collection 20¢ Bag of Lollies, at the fair, a contemplative series of closed storefronts and lone figures that reflect on solitude and how much of life has shifted behind screens in the digital age.

If you’ve made it this far down the page, there’s something we’ve saved just for you. A free VIP Pass to the fair. They get you in early, let you skip the lines, and come back any day you like. Just click the button below to claim yours while they're still available.

The Affordable Art Fair runs from August 28 to 31 at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton. If you love art, slow moments, and the feeling of discovering something before everyone else does, this is your kind of weekend.