A bit of history
The building of 1282 Mount Dandenong Tourist Road, Kalorama was built in the 1920's when a trip up to the Dandenong Ranges was a significant undertaking, it has since housed a number of businesses, including a bank, general store, and over the past 40 years a variety of galleries, being operated under various names such as Five Ways Gallery (2006-2011) and Kapi Art Space (2018-2026). Karly remembers coming to the gallery in the 1990's when it was quite a different gallery to now, with large landscapes and gold frames. The director of Kapi Art Space was hyper-realistic painter Heather Bradbury, who has a focus on photo-realism oil painting and teaching. Kapi is the Pitjantjatjara word for 'water' reflecting Heather's close ties to the community and the name referring to the offering of the space as a place for renewal. Heather's tenure carried the gallery through the early and difficult covid era, and an unfortunate car crash which ended up with a car in the middle of the gallery. As a result, the front gallery space was re-formed into the contemporary space it is today.