ACE Open, South Australia’s premier contemporary art gallery, today announces its 2022 Artistic Program. Comprising solo and group exhibitions, as well as significant offsite and live programming, the 2022 season showcases some of the nation’s most important emerging and established contemporary artists.
ACE Open Artistic Director Patrice Sharkey says that the program is led by new work opportunities for local and national artists.
“Following two years of delayed programming and lost gigs across Australia, being in a position to support artists to think afresh and connect beyond borders feels more important than ever,” she says. “ACE’s exhibition program continues to be driven by the question: what is urgent to discuss today and who should be telling these stories?”
The 2022 program kicks off with the Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition (17 February – 19 March), an annual showcase of the next generation of South Australia’s contemporary creative voices. Over 20 emerging artists from Flinders University and the University of South Australia will present their graduate works at this preeminent event on the Adelaide arts calendar.
Giselle Stanborough, Cinopticon 2021, wall drawing (detail). Courtesy the artis
Featuring work by Roy Ananda, Giselle Stanborough, and others, Metaverse (9 April – 14 May) considers what it means on a human level to be shaped and governed through the advent of the Internet, drawing together a selection of work foretelling dystopian visions in response to our increasingly inescapable relationship to technology. The diverse array of selected artists and works featured brings algorithms, AI, video games, surveillance technology, personal data, machine learning and internet culture into orbit with questions of truth, reality and selfhood, evoking the dynamics of digital worlds in constant flux.
Roy Ananda, Supreme Library 2020-2021, collage and drawing on paper, digital prints, tracing paper, particleboard, acrylic, polyester pinboards, dimensions variable. Installation view, Adelaide Central Gallery, 2021. Photography by Sam Roberts. Courtesy the artist.
In a show that confirms her as an important new artistic voice in South Australia, Cambodian-Australian film-maker and multidisciplinary artist Allison Chhorn considers the cultural practices and rituals of the Cambodian diaspora in Skin Shade Night Day (4 June – 13 August). This show is realised with the support of the 2022 Porter Street Commission, which grants $20,000 towards the development of new work.
Bringing together a suite of large scale oil paintings over eight years in development, Ryan Presley’s exhibition Fresh Hell (3 September – 29 October) interrogates the ongoing colonial project by casting Aboriginal people as key protagonists in recent pasts and foreseeable futures.
Ryan Presley, The Dunes 2021 (detail). Photography by Carl Warner. Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
With references to Western religious art from the Middle Ages through to the present day employed throughout, Presley’s work engages in tactics such as reinterpretation, intervention and confrontation as a way of appraising difficult histories and drawing attention to the ongoing treatment of Aboriginal people. Fresh Hell is co-commissioned with Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne.
Studios: 2022 (12 November – 17 December) showcases work by five contemporary artists developed out of the 2022 ACE Open Studio Program. This annual Studio Program exhibition is a celebration of the diversity of contemporary art practices of South Australian artists and highlights the participants’ ongoing artistic pursuits and interests. For the first time, one of the studio artists will be selected to develop and present a solo exhibition of new work in Sydney as part of Firstdraft’s 2022 exhibition program.
Studios: 2021, installation view, ACE Open, Adelaide, 2021. Photography by Thomas McCammon.
ACE Open looks forward to presenting a diverse and responsive array of public programs that will enrich visitors’ understanding and appreciation of the exhibitions on offer, including artist talks, curator-led tours, access events and resources, and a range of special events.
A redesigned website with user accessibility at its heart, and a refreshed brand and social media presence, launches in April 2022, signalling a bold new era for ACE Open and cementing its place as South Australia’s preeminent contemporary art gallery.
ACE Open remains responsive and adaptable to the changing COVID-19 conditions, with visitor safety and ongoing artist support at top of mind.
“The pandemic is a once-in-a-lifetime event and, across Australia, has caused major disruptions to gallery’s planned programming and ways of engaging audiences,” says Sharkey. “Being cognisant of our role in the visual arts ecology, we are striving more than ever to make new work opportunities for Australian artists and connect South Australian artists to peers and networks outside of the state.”
“With the current wave of Omicron, the start of the year has brought with it its own challenges – we’ve recently shifted some presentation dates to account for changed working conditions related to the restrictions currently in place – and will continue to program in a responsive way across the year whilst ensuring the ongoing support of the artists we work with.”
ACE Open is located within Lion Arts Factory, North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000
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