ACE Open

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ACE Open
ACE Open logo.png
ACE Open
Former name
 Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia & Australian Experimental Art Foundation
Established2017
Location Lion Arts Centre, Adelaide
Type Contemporary art gallery
DirectorPatrice Sharkey
CEO Louise Dunn
ChairpersonKate Irving
Website aceopen.art

ACE Open (Adelaide Contemporary Experimental) is a contemporary visual art organisation based in Adelaide, South Australia, established in 2017 after the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia and the Australian Experimental Art Foundation (AEAF) were merged, creating a new organisation.

Contents

History

The Experimental Art Foundation (EAF) was created in the Adelaide suburb of St Peters [1] in 1974 by a breakaway group of CACSA members, with the intention of focusing on "more radical, multi-disciplinary and performance work". [2] These artists and theorists, initiated by Donald Brook, and joined by Bert Flugelman [1] (who had moved from Sydney at Brook's suggestion), Ian North, Clifford Frith, and Phil Noyce, [3] wanted to promote the idea of art as "radical and only incidentally aesthetic", and encourage new approaches to creating art. Its stated mission was "to assist, promote and develop, through production, exhibition, distribution and the encouragement of debate, art and art practices that are analytical, critical and experimental, which challenge established thinking and expand cultural discourse". [4] According to Brook, the EAF was "an engine for shaping beliefs about the meaning of works of art and the point of making them". [5] Its exhibitions displayed the work of both Australian and international experimental and performance artists; In 1976, artist Phillip Gerner gave a 24-hour performance as a human jam-tasting facility, after having a feeding tube and catheter inserted into his body. [1]

Printmaker Ruth Faerber, reviewing an exhibition of Adelaide art at the Art Gallery of NSW in 1977, compared the EAF with the Progressive Art Movement, which was "motivated by a strong Marxist sociopolitical direction, agreed to a shared program for action and a sense of immediate imperative". By contrast the EAF, did not commit to a set of agreed aims, and stated that they had an "open ended" attitude against mainstream, non-conformism as against entrenched doctrines, "experimentation as against patrician formalism". [6]

In 1992 the re-purposed factory building which became the Lion Arts Centre included a purpose-built gallery, artist studios, offices and the Dark Horsey Bookshop, which focused on art-related publications. Renamed the Australian Experimental Art Foundation (AEAF) along the way, the organisation ran a residency program, which supported several leading South Australian artists. [7] The AEAF was mainly funded by the federal government through the Australia Council and the Government of South Australia through Arts SA. [4]

From August 2016 the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia (CACSA) started talks to merge with AEAF, [8] after two rounds of severe funding cuts to the Australia Council in the federal government budgets of 2014/15 and 2015/16. Arts SA provided funding for the two organisations to cover operational costs for 2017, which enabled planning for the merger, which was named ACE Open. [9] [10] [1] After the merger had been decided, the Australia Council provided further funding to ACE Open to help with its setup costs. [2]

The new gallery opened its inaugural exhibition, BLACKFLAG, featuring the work of South Australian painter Christian Lock, on 15 March 2017. [11]

Description

The organisation, which is also known as Adelaide Contemporary Experimental, [12] is located in the Lion Arts Centre (the former location of the AEAF [11] ) in the West End of North Terrace, in an area specifically designed for artistic use, including a gallery, office space and artist's studios. It also incorporates a free space, formerly the Dark Horsey bookshop, which can be used for events and other purposes, and includes the former Feast Festival rooms across the laneway. [2] It presents an annual program of free exhibitions by South Australian, Australian and international artists, and hosts events including artist talks, workshops, celebrations and screenings. [13]

ACE Open is a member of Contemporary Art Organisations Australia (CAOA, formerly CAOs), a network of "public, independent, non-collecting contemporary art organisations" from around Australia that serves is an advocacy body for Australian small to medium contemporary visual arts bodies, thus helping to promote the work of living artists. [14]

Governance

ACE Open's inaugural CEO in 2017 was Liz Nowell, [2] former CEO of CACSA. [15] Nowell was appointed director of the Institute of Modern Art Brisbane in March 2019. [16]

In March 2021 the artistic director was Patrice Sharkey, and executive director (ED) is Louise Dunn (who previously led Nexus Arts, 2012–2019). Rainer Jozeps was chair of the board, which included artist James Darling AM and writer and museum curator Jared Thomas. [17] [18]

Sharkey left in February 2024 [19] and the end of February 2024, [20] when Danni (Danielle) Zuvela became artistic director. [12] As of June 2024 Louise Dunn remains ED, while Amanda Pepe is chair. The board includes entrepreneur and film producer Anton Andreacchio and artist Yhonnie Scarce. [21]

Notable exhibitions

From 1 June to 10 August 2024, ACE Open is running an exhibition curated by curated by Alexandra Nitschke, entitled Entities: The Concepts and Post-Object Exhibitions. This exhibition showcases the work of the Contemporary Art Society (CAS) and the Experimental Art Foundation (EAF), and is partly based on former exhibitions held by these entities: the 1974 CAS exhibition Concepts (which included works by Mike Parr); and the 1976 EAF exhibition Australian and New Zealand Post-Object Show – A Survey. It also includes other original materials, such as posters, essays, and video clips which demonstrate some of the experimental artists' radical practices. [12]

Related Research Articles

AEAF may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Gallery of South Australia</span> Art gallery in Adelaide, Australia

The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of almost 45,000 works of art, making it the second largest state art collection in Australia. As part of North Terrace cultural precinct, the gallery is flanked by the South Australian Museum to the west and the University of Adelaide to the east.

EAF may refer to:

Herbert Flugelman, usually known as Bert, was a prominent Australian visual artist, primarily a sculptor, who had many of his works publicly displayed. He is known for his stainless steel geometric public sculptures. Among his best-known works are the "Mall's Balls" in Adelaide, and "the Silver Shish Kebab" in Sydney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artspace Visual Arts Centre</span> Contemporary art center in Woolloomooloo, Sydney, Australia

Artspace, officially Artspace Visual Arts Centre, is an independent, not-for-profit and non-collecting residency-based contemporary art centre. Artspace is housed in the historic Gunnery Building in Woolloomooloo, fronting Sydney Harbour in Sydney, Australia. Devoted to the development of certain new ideas and practices in contemporary art and culture, since the early 1980s Artspace has been building a critical context for Australian and international artists, curators and writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Grayson (artist)</span> British artist, writer and curator (born 1958)

Richard Grayson is a British artist, writer and curator. His art practice encompasses installation, video, painting and performance. He investigates ways that narratives shape our understandings of the world. His art and curatorial practice focus on narrative and the visual arts, belief systems and material expression, and ways cultural practices allow translation between the subjective and social/political realms.

Australian feminist art timeline lists exhibitions, artists, artworks and milestones that have contributed to discussion and development of feminist art in Australia. The timeline focuses on the impact of feminism on Australian contemporary art. It was initiated by Daine Singer for The View From Here: 19 Perspectives on Feminism, an exhibition and publishing project held at West Space as part of the 2010 Next Wave Festival.

The Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia (CACSA), formerly Contemporary Art Society (CAS), was an art museum and art space located in the Adelaide suburb of Parkside, in South Australia. In late 2016 it merged with the Australian Experimental Art Foundation to form ACE Open.

The Adelaide International was a biennial art exhibition held in at the Samstag Museum of Art in Adelaide, South Australia, in partnership with the Adelaide Festival of the Arts, from 2010 to 2014. The series featured a range of contemporary visual works from artists based outside Australia. After a pause in the partnership was agreed, the exhibition was revived by the Samstag in 2019 as a series of three annual events, with the new title Adelaide//International, with a different context and concept: the 2019 exhibition was about the effect of colonisation on indigenous culture.

Ann Foster Newmarch, known as "Annie", was a South Australian painter, printmaker, sculptor and academic, with an international reputation, known for her community service to art, social activism and feminism. She co-founded the Progressive Art and the Women's Art Movement (WAM) in Adelaide, and is especially known for her iconic 1978 colour screenprint piece titled Women Hold Up Half the Sky!.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Contemporary Art Society (Australia)</span> Australian organisation

The Contemporary Art Society is an Australian organisation formed in Victoria 1938 to promote non-representative forms of art. Separate, autonomous branches were formed in each state of the Commonwealth by 1966, although not all of them still exist today.

Tarnanthi is a Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art held in Adelaide, South Australia, annually. Presented by the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) in association with the South Australian Government and BHP. It is curated by Nici Cumpston.

Barbara Cleveland is an Australian contemporary performance art collective who primarily work on Gadigal land in Sydney, Australia. Barbara Cleveland's works examine the histories of visual and performing arts and are informed by queer and feminist theories.

Yhonnie Scarce is an Australian glass artist whose work is held in major Australian galleries. She is a descendant of the Kokatha and Nukunu people of South Australia, and her art is informed by the effects of colonisation on Indigenous Australia, in particular Aboriginal South Australians. She has been active as an artist since completing her first degree in 2003, and teaches at the Centre of Visual Art in the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne.

Sera Waters is a South Australian textile artist, arts writer, and arts educator. She lectures at Adelaide Central School of Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art</span> Gallery, advocacy body in New South Wales

4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, formerly known as Gallery 4A, 4A Galleries, Asia-Australia Arts Centre and also known simply as 4A, is an Australian independent not-for-profit organisation based in the Haymarket area of Sydney, New South Wales. It commissions, exhibits, documents and researches Asian and Asian-Australian contemporary art in Australia, and promotes Australian talent in Asia, promoting and maintaining cultural connections between the nation and the region. The gallery and the associated Performance 4A were founded by the Asian Australian Artists Association Inc. in 1997.

Stephanie Radok is an artist and writer based in Adelaide, South Australia, whose work is held in the National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria. She worked as a general editor for Artlink and as an art critic for Artlink, Adelaide Review, and Art Monthly Australia.

Abdul-Rahman Abdullah is an Australian artist based in Western Australia, an elder brother of artist Abdul Abdullah. He works mainly in sculpture and installations.

The Women's Art Movement (WAM) was an Australian feminist art movement, founded in Sydney in 1974, Melbourne in 1974, and Adelaide in 1976.

The Institute of Modern Art (IMA) is a public art gallery located in the Judith Wright Arts Centre in the Brisbane inner-city suburb of Fortitude Valley, which features contemporary artworks and showcases emerging artists in a series of group and solo exhibitions. Founded in 1975, the gallery does not house a permanent collection, but also publishes research, exhibition catalogues and other monographs. Liz Nowell has been the director of the gallery since 2019.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Foster, Farrin (7 April 2021). "The power of performance: How Adelaide's experimental art scene is being reignited". InDaily . Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "An ACE Up Our Sleeves". Broadsheet. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  3. ↑ Mendelssohn, Joanna (2018). "Donald Brook b. 8 January 1927". Design & Art Australia Online .
  4. 1 2 "Industry profile - Australian Experimental Art Foundation - 108692". ArtsHub Australia. Archived from the original on 25 March 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  5. ↑ Brook, Donald (27 February 2013). "Master sculptor had passion for experimentation". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  6. ↑ Faerber, Ruth (14 July 1977). "Art in Adelaide". The Australian Jewish Times . Vol. 84, no. 44. New South Wales, Australia. p. 14. Retrieved 29 January 2022– via National Library of Australia.
  7. ↑ "Australian Experimental Art Foundation (AEAF)". ACE Open. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  8. ↑ "CACSA, AEAF to Merge in Wake of Australia Council Cuts". The Adelaide Review. 2 August 2016. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  9. ↑ "Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia (CACSA)". ACE Open. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  10. ↑ "Funding cuts force SA visual arts organisations to merge - InDaily". InDaily. 3 August 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  11. 1 2 "Meet ACE Open — Art Guide Australia". Art Guide Australia. 16 March 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  12. 1 2 3 "Green Room: She Speaks, 'unruly' art, back on the bus". InReview . 30 May 2024. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  13. ↑ "About". ACE Open. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  14. ↑ "About". Contemporary Arts Organisations Australia. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  15. ↑ Wallace, Ilona (19 April 2017). "An ACE Up Our Sleeves". Broadsheet. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  16. ↑ Marsh, Walter (27 March 2019). "ACE Open head Liz Nowell appointed director of Brisbane Institute of Modern Art". Adelaide Review . Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  17. ↑ "Staff and Board". ACE Open. 26 November 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  18. ↑ "Biography". James Darling & Lesley Forwood. Retrieved 25 March 2021.[ dead link ]
  19. ↑ "About Us". ACE Gallery. Archived from the original on 20 January 2024. Retrieved 3 June 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  20. ↑ "About Us". ACE Gallery. Archived from the original on 27 February 2024. Retrieved 3 June 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  21. ↑ "About Us". ACE Gallery. Archived from the original on 3 June 2024. Retrieved 3 June 2024.

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