2018 program

The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) today launches its summer season exhibition, Unfinished Business: Perspectives on art and feminism, and announces its exhibition program for 2018.

Unfinished Business: Perspectives on art and feminism
December 15, 2017–March 25, 2018

Adopting a collaborative, polyphonic form which encourages diverse voices, practices and debates, Unfinished Business: Perspectives on art and feminism surveys the diverse scope of feminist art practices—including painting, performance, photography and film to community engagement and cultural activism—focusing on the dynamic formal invention and social engagement of feminist artists. It explores strategies and analyses of gender identity and representation, intersectional politics, and practices which embrace performative codes, text and media technologies, humour and critique.

Conceived as part of ACCA’s annual Big Picture summer series exploring contemporary art’s relation to wider social, cultural and political contexts, Unfinished Business explores trans-generational legacies, inheritances and shifts, alongside contemporary conditions and concerns, to stimulate new debates and discussions around the “unfinished business” of feminism today.

Artists: Another Planet Posters Inc., Atong Atem, Cigdem Aydemir, Ali Gumillya Baker, Archie Barry, Vivienne Binns, Hannah Brontë, Janet Burchill and Jennifer McCamley, Madison Bycroft, Sadie Chandler, Kate Daw, Linda Dement, Narelle Desmond, Kelly Doley, Mikala Dwyer, Mary Featherston and Emily Floyd, Fiona Foley. FRAN FEST Poster Project, Virginia Fraser and Elvis Richardson, Sarah Goffman, Elizabeth Gower, Natalie Harkin, Sandra Hill, Hissy Fit, Jillposters, Kate Just, Maria Kozic, LEVEL, Eugenia Lim, Lip Collective, Linda Marrinon, Alex Martinis Roe, Spence Messih, Ann Newmarch, Claudia Nicholson, Ruth O’Leary, Frances (Budden) Phoenix, Elizabeth Pulie, Clare Rae, Hannah Raisin, Giselle Stanborough, Desiree Tahiri, Sophie Takách, Salote Tawale, Nat Thomas, The Cross Art Projects, Lyndal Walker, Shevaun Wright

Film program: Hayley Arjona, Gillian Armstrong, Art Theory Productions, Barbara Campbell, Barbara Cleveland, Essie Coffey, Megan Cope, Emma-Kate Croghan, Destiny Deacon and Virginia Fraser, Sue Dodd, Helen Grace, Deborah Kelly, The Kingpins, Samantha Lang, Megan McMurchy, Tracey Moffatt, Margot Nash, Nat and Ali, Margot Oliver, Monica Pellizzari, Patricia Piccinini, Jacinta Schreuder, Soda Jerk, Jeni Thornley, Sarah Watt, Jackie Wolf aka Jackie Farkas

Performance program: Frances Barrett, Barbara Campbell, Hannah Donnelly, Embittered Swish, Lyndal Jones, Técha Noble, Linda Sproul 

Podcast project: Tai Snaith

Curators: Paola Balla, Max Delany, Julie Ewington, Annika Kristensen, Vikki McInnes, Elvis Richardson

Dwelling Poetically: Mexico City, a case study
April 21–June 24, 2018
Curator: Chris Sharp

Artists: Francis Alÿs, Andrew Birk, Isabel Nuño de Buen, Ramiro Chaves, Martin Soto Climent, Chelsea Culprit, Abraham Cruzvillegas, ektor garcia, Yann Gerstberger, Jaki Irvine, Kate Newby, Melanie Smith

Dwelling Poetically: Mexico City, a case study proposes a portrait of the Mexican capital through the work of artists who live there, have lived there, or have only passed through, and yet have nevertheless contributed to its composition. Authored by the city as much as they are authors of it, these artists are crucial factors in the development and cultivation of Mexico City as place, myth, site of cultural production and metropolis in the global imaginary.

Yalingwa
July 7–September 9, 2018
Curator: Hannah Presley
Artists to be announced in February 2018

Yalingwa is the first major exhibition to be launched as part of a new partnership between ACCA, TarraWarra Museum of Art and Creative Victoria, designed to support the development of contemporary Indigenous art and curatorial practice. The Yalingwa Initiative encompasses a series of exhibitions, curatorial positions and artists fellowships over 2018-2022. Yalingwa is a Woiwurrung word which means both ‘day’ and ‘light’. The inaugural exhibition in the series, curated by Hannah Presley, will feature newly commissioned work by leading Aboriginal artists from South East Australia and beyond.

The ACCA International: Eva Rothschild
September 22–November 25, 2018
Curators: Max Delany and Annika Kristensen

ACCA is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in Australia of Irish-born, London-based artist Eva Rothschild. Influenced by minimalist forms of the 1960s and 1970s, classical architecture, spirituality and the nature of visual perception and materiality, Rothschild is best known for her abstract sculptural works constructed from an array of materials including leather, paper, Plexiglas, jesmonite, steel and wood. Taking over the entirety of ACCA’s expansive gallery spaces, the exhibition brings together newly commissioned and existing work, to form an extensive overview of the breadth of Rothschild’s artistic output. The ACCA International is an annual series of new commissions by leading international artists at critical moments in their practice.

The Macfarlane Commissions
December 15, 2018–March 17, 2019
Curators: Max Delany and Annika Kristensen
Artists to be announced in February 2018

The Macfarlane Commissions are a biennial series of exhibitions featuring new commissions by five mid-career Australian and international artists at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. The inaugural Macfarlane Commission recipients will be announced in February, 2018, in anticipation of the exhibition opening in December.

The Macfarlane Fund’s primary focus is to offer generous financial support across the career span of contemporary artists. The Fund was established to honour the memory of Donald (Don) Macfarlane, who, throughout his life, took immense pleasure in the arts and was known for his non-conformist approach to business leadership and visionary community involvement.