An art school for curious minds.

We believe everyone can develop a creative practice. Not by following formulas, but by learning to look closely, experiment freely and think independently.

Founded in Melbourne’s inner north, the school brings together traditional art education and contemporary creative technologies.

Why the school exists

Plenty of adults want to draw, paint or make things with code. The usual options are a one-off workshop or a university degree, with very little in between.

We want to fill that gap with serious, friendly teaching: small groups, real skills, and the kind of conversation you’d find in an art school studio, after work and close to home.

Seeing, making and thinking

“Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see.”

John Ruskin, Modern Painters, volume III, 1856

Every class follows the same rhythm. We look closely at something, from a lemon on a table to a Renaissance drawing. We make, with pencil, charcoal or code. Then we talk about what happened, and what to try next.

Leonardo da Vinci’s sheet of studies of hands, drawn in fine grey lines on pale paper — Leonardo da Vinci, *Studies of hands*, c. 1480. Royal Collection Trust.

Point cloud self-portrait of Alex Gibson: a head and shoulders built from thousands of small blue cubes against black — Alex Gibson, *Point cloud self-portrait*, 2020

Meet your teacher

I’m Alex Gibson, the school’s founder. I’m an artist and creative technologist with a Master of Fine Arts, and my working life has moved between the studio and the screen.

My practice is broad and research-led. I build drawing machines, make algorithmic and AI-generated images, render point clouds and 3D figures, and invite audiences to take part in the work. I’m also a member of Performprint, a Melbourne collective that turns printmaking into live performance.

Algorithms are ways of seeing. So is a pencil.

That idea runs through all my work, and it’s the heart of this school: the oldest skill in art, looking carefully, taught alongside the newest tools we have for making. Away from the studio, I lead creative and technology teams in the arts.

See my work at xgibson.com

Selected work

A long illuminated screen of machine-made line drawings in a dark venue, with visitors walking past — *Drawing Machine 22*, installation view

A rippling blue-grey generative terrain inside a rounded square on black — *Displacement no. 19*, 2018

A dense, glitched field of orange, gold and black fragments — *Glitch no. 11*, 2017

A glossy gold 3D rendering of Michelangelo’s David against black — *Gold David*

A painterly AI-generated landscape of the Yarra Valley, with hills, fields and a patchy bright sky — *Yarra Valley Ranges*

Rendered white gallery rooms on a black ground, hung with a blue square, a red square and a yellow panel — *Galleries Are Algorithms And Art Is Data*, 2020

Where we’re heading

We’re starting small on purpose: two beginner classes, one teacher and a room in the inner north.

If people enjoy learning here, we’ll grow carefully. Intermediate and advanced classes come next, then more teachers and mediums, open studio nights, exhibitions of student work, and online courses for people who can’t make it in person.

Explore classes

Hear about new classes, workshops, artist talks and creative ideas from our studio.

First name