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 for its fifth 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.

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.

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.

Amanda has always had a love of beautiful things. With a background in fashion and her label Divine Deluxe, she created garments using exceptional fabrics, fine tailoring, and intricate corsetry.

After moving to New York and working as a makeup artist in film and photographic arts, she became immersed in the art world, where her eclectic style emerged.

Her work has been exhibited with the Naarm Textile Collective and the Embroiderers Guild of Victoria. Drawing on her Australian heritage, she collects vintage objects and uses hand embroidery to transform them into renewed works, preserving history within a contemporary context.

If you love art, slow moments, and the feeling of discovering something before everyone else does, this is your kind of weekend.

Grab your tickets below:

• Brisbane - 7-10 May 2026
• Melbourne - 27-30 August 2026
• Sydney - 5-8 November 2026