Media

16 Dec 2024

Charlotte Day and Lisa Fox join the ACCA Board

Monday 16 December, 2024: Dr Terry Wu, Chair of The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) announced today that leading Australian museum director Charlotte Day and arts philanthropist Lisa Fox will join the ACCA Board in 2025. Charlotte Day is Director of Art Museums at the University of Melbourne, with oversight of Buxton Contemporary and […]

16 Dec 2024

ACCA Summer Season exhibition: The Charge That Binds

7 December 2024 – 16 March 2025 Celebrating the dynamism, vitality and power of natural phenomena and the more-than-human world, The Charge That Binds is a major new exhibition reminding us of what is at stake at a time of ecological emergency.  Infused with both optimism and grief, the exhibition draws together works that celebrate a world composed […]

30 Sep 2024

Myles Russell-Cook appointed Artistic Director & CEO of ACCA

ACCA Chair Dr Terry Wu announced today that leading Australian curator Myles Russell-Cook has been appointed Artistic Director & CEO of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). Currently Senior Curator of Australian and First Nations Art at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Myles Russell-Cook has contributed to and curated numerous significant and internationally […]

22 Jul 2024

Tennant Creek Brio: Juparnta Ngattu Minjinypa Iconocrisis

ACCA presents the first major survey of Tennant Creek Brio, an artist collective living and working on Warumungu Country. Fusing First Nations cultural traditions, the industrial materiality of the mining industry, and regional and global art influences, the exhibition asserts and re-imagines the artists’ cross-cultural identities, drawing upon the haunting wounds of post-contact histories, the […]

8 Jul 2024

Max Delany announces plans to step down as ACCA Artistic Director & CEO in November

Announced today: ACCA Artistic Director and CEO Max Delany has shared his intention to step down from his role in November 2024 with ACCA’s Board and colleagues. ACCA Chair Dr Terry Wu said Max’s contributions to ACCA have been immense and profound. “While we are all deeply saddened to hear this news, we know Max […]

9 May 2024

Future Remains

The 2024 Macfarlane Commissions Artists explore myriad ways stories from the past can shape and impact present realities in Future Remains: The 2024 Macfarlane Commissions, the fourth edition of a multi-year partnership supporting ambitious new artworks by emerging and mid-career artists. Future Remains presents major new projects from seven contemporary artists from across Australia who […]

7 Feb 2024

2024 ACCA International exhibition

Laure Provoust: Oui Move In You  The first major Australian survey of work by celebrated French artist Laure Prouvost opens at ACCA on 23 March.   Continuing the annual ACCA International series of solo exhibitions by influential artists on the international stage, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art will present Oui Move In You, a major solo […]

7 Feb 2024

2024 ACCA Artistic Program

ACCA is pleased to announce its 2024 artistic program, encompassing a quarterly, seasonally-based program of exhibitions, alongside offsite, online, touring and special projects, supported by a dynamic series of education and public programs. Our 2024 program includes the following keynote projects. From the other side9 December 2023– 3 March, 2024 Artists: Naomi Blacklock, Mia Boe, […]

5 Feb 2024

Announcing Dr Terry Wu as ACCA’s new Chair

ACCA’s Board of Directors announced today that Dr Terry Wu will take on the role of Chair at ACCA. He follows John Denton, who steps down after thirteen years as Chair and two decades as a member of ACCA’s Board. A member of the ACCA Board since 2019, Terry is a a long-standing arts advocate […]

30 Jan 2024

Screams on Screen

Over two heart stopping nights in February (16th-17th), RMIT’s historic Capitol Theatre will become the spookiest place in Melbourne for Screams on Screen, a curated program at the interface of art/horror featuring live music, art, feature films, rarely seen experimental shorts, artist and director talks that celebrate the monstrous emotions and transgressive, rebellious forces that […]

10 Nov 2023

ACCA Statement in Support of Artists

ACCA is a platform for artists, and we fully support and respect their fundamental right to express their artistic and political views, without fear of retribution, in keeping with principles of freedom of cultural expression. In keeping with our mission, vision and values, ACCA is equally a centre for the exchange of ideas, and we […]

24 Jul 2023

James Nguyen: Open Glossary

The second edition of the Copyright Agency Partnerships Commission, James Nguyen’s multi-lingual installation Open Glossary interrogates the politics of language, cultural exchange, activism and belonging. Amongst other things, Nguyen will fill ACCA’s main hall with hundreds of white shirts, as a sensory and immersive sculptural work that probes the language of contemporary art and society […]

14 Jun 2023

Between Waves

The Yalingwa Exhibition 21 July – 3 September, 2023 A major new exhibition featuring ten ambitious commissions by emerging and established First Nations artists that embrace the intersection of material and immaterial realms of knowledge and knowing.  Between Waves is the third edition of the Yalingwa exhibition series that supports the development of outstanding contemporary […]

21 Mar 2023

Mithu Sen: mOTHERTONGUE

22 April – 18 June 2023 Continuing the annual ACCA International series of solo exhibitions by influential artists on the international stage, a new exhibition of work by leading New Delhi-based artist Mithu Sen will open on 22 April. Mithu Sen (b. 1971) was born in West Bengal, and is one of India’s most renowned […]

15 Feb 2023

2023 Artistic Program

This year ACCA celebrates a 21st and a 40th: 21 years in our iconic building designed by Wood Marsh, and 40 years as a platform for artists to make new, risk-taking and experimental work that resonates and connects, challenges our thinking, and encourages new perspectives. ACCA’s 2023 program includes the following keynote exhibitions, as well as […]

6 Feb 2023

Maree Clarke awarded $60,000 Yalingwa Fellowship

Mutti Mutti, Wamba Wamba, Yorta Yorta and Boonwurrung woman Maree Clarke has been awarded the prestigious Yalingwa Fellowship, a $60,000 award for a Senior First Nations artist currently living and working in Victoria who has made an outstanding contribution to creative practice in the First Peoples arts community and are at a critical moment in […]

30 Jan 2023

ACCA launches new Digital Wing

A new commission by New York based artists Tega Brain and Sam Lavigne and the Data Relations digital publication will launch ACCA’s new Digital Wing on 30 January 2023. ACCA’s current exhibition Data Relations explores our rapidly expanding data economy, surveillance technologies and the ascendance of Artificial Intelligence. Tega Brain and Sam Lavigne’s project, titled […]

16 Nov 2022

Data Relations

Featuring artists: Zach Blas, Tega Brain & Sam Lavigne, Lauren Lee McCarthy, Machine Listening (Sean Dockray, James Parker and Joel Stern), Mimi Onuoha, Winnie Soon; plus Data Relations Summer SchoolGuest Curator Miriam Kelly, Coordinating Curator Shelley McSpedden Opening on 10 December, this major new exhibition and program explores our rapidly expanding data economy, data-obsessed society, […]

24 Aug 2022

Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH

Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH is an extensive survey exhibition encompassing the full scope of the artist’s work, and includes a major new room-scaled installation developed especially for the exhibition. Continuing ACCA’s Australian solo series which highlights the work of significant and influential contemporary Australian artists, WORD MADE FLESH is constructed maximally as a gesamtkunstwerk, […]

6 Jul 2022

Announcing James Nguyen is the second recipient of the $80,000 Copyright Agency Partnerships Commission, in collaboration with ACCA

The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) and the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund are pleased to announce Melbourne artist James Nguyen is the second recipient of the CAP (Copyright Agency Partnerships) Commission. The commission is part of a three-year series run by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund with leading Australian arts institutions 4A Centre for […]

10 May 2022

ACCA announces Jessica Clark as third Yalingwa Curator and welcomes Jessica to the ACCA team

Go to Yalingwa Program Page » This week the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) welcomed Jessica Clark to the role of Yalingwa Curator. An independent curator and PhD candidate at the Victorian College of the Arts, Jessica will be responsible for conceiving and realising the 2023 Yalingwa exhibition at ACCA, which is the third […]

23 Feb 2022

Frances Barrett: Meatus

Frances Barrett’s much-anticipated exhibition Meatus, part of the celebrated series Suspended Moment: The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship, will open at ACCA on 2 April 2022, having been postponed since 2020 due to prolonged pandemic-related lockdowns. Suspended Moment: The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship is a suite of unique commissions, originally announced in 2018, to support Australian women artists […]

15 Feb 2022

ACCA Exhibition Program for 2022

8 February 2022 The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) is pleased to share the Exhibition Program for 2022, which includes: The third edition of the Macfarlane Commissions, featuring major new works by eight Australian artists, including Nadia Hernández, Lucina Lane, Gian Manik, Betty Muffler, Jahnne Pasco-White, Jason Phu, JD Reforma and Esther Stewart.  Frances […]

29 Nov 2021

Who’s Afraid of Public Space?

4 December 2021 – 20 March 2022  ACCA’s multifaceted project of exhibitions and programs exploring the role of public culture, the contested nature of public space, and the character and composition of public life, opens this coming Saturday, 4 December.   Who’s Afraid of Public Space? continues ACCA’s Big Picture series, which explores contemporary art’s […]

6 Nov 2021

Today – Jeremy Deller: Father and Son

JEREMY DELLER: FATHER AND SON PRESENTED BY ACCA AT ST SAVIOUR’S CHURCH OF EXILES 6 OXFORD STREET, COLLINGWOOD, MELBOURNE 6 NOVEMBER 2021, MIDDAY TO MIDNIGHT   So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For […]

29 Oct 2021

Jeremy Deller: Father and Son

PRESENTED BY ACCA AT ST SAVIOUR’S CHURCH OF EXILES 6 OXFORD STREET, COLLINGWOOD, MELBOURNE 6 NOVEMBER 2021, MIDDAY TO MIDNIGHT   So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that […]

20 Oct 2021

Announcing ACCA’s Summer Season – Who’s Afraid of Public Space?

4 December 2021 – 20 March 2022 Over the summer season, ACCA will present a multifaceted project of exhibitions and programs exploring the role of public culture, the contested nature of public space, and the character and composition of public life. Taking place at ACCA, the project will also extend across the city through a […]

25 Jun 2021

A Biography of Daphne

26 June – 5 September 2021 A Biography of Daphne is a new exhibition that revisits the Classical myth of Daphne as the starting point for an investigation of trauma and metamorphosis, symbiosis and entanglement in contemporary art. Daphne, the nymph who turned into a tree to evade the assault of the god Apollo, is a […]

14 May 2021

ACCA’s 2021 Lecture Series – Experimental Institutionalism: Contemporary Art and Curatorial Ecologies

What are the current and future models that are shaping contemporary art and curatorial practice, thinking, and ecology? ACCA’s 2021 lecture series engages 16 local and international thinkers on eight key topics that position contemporary art in dialogue with wider global economic, technological, environmental and political contexts. This year the series has been recalibrated from lectures […]

10 Mar 2021

Yhonnie Scarce: Missile Park

Developed by ACCA in partnership with the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, a major new exhibition of work by Yhonnie Scarce will open at ACCA in March, followed by a season at the IMA in July.  Titled Missile Park, the exhibition will include a series of new commissions plus a comprehensive survey of the past fifteen years work from this leading Australian contemporary […]

18 Feb 2021

Australian Centre for Contemporary Art – 2021 Exhibition Program

Announcing the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art’s 2021 Exhibition Program. Until March 14: Overlapping Magisteria: The 2020 Macfarlane Commissions The second edition of the Macfarlane Commissions, Overlapping Magisteria transforms ACCA’s galleries with ambitious new works encompassing living organisms, kinetic installations and immersive assemblages, each paying attention to multiple ways of knowing, sensing, feeling and interacting with the world. Curated by Max Delany […]

4 Dec 2020

ANNOUNCING – Overlapping Magisteria: The 2020 Macfarlane Commissions

Five new works draw on material facts and immaterial values to unsettle the divide between nature and culture, science and metaphysics. Overlapping Magisteria is the second edition of The Macfarlane Commissions, a biennial exhibition at ACCA supporting ambitious projects by emerging and mid-career contemporary Australian and international artists. Participating artists Robert Andrew, Mimosa Echard, Sidney […]

30 Oct 2020

NIRIN NAARM Now online | 10–15 November 2020

In a unique new collaboration, ACCA is honoured to present NIRIN NAARM, a week-long online exhibition presenting selected key works from the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, titled NIRIN, under the artistic direction of acclaimed Indigenous Australian artist Brook Andrew. The 22nd Biennale of Sydney, which ran from March – October 2020, was an artist- and First […]

19 Aug 2020

ACCA Open – now open!

The first two projects from a new series of digital commissions launch this week via ACCA’s website. Announced in April, ACCA Open was conceived as a way for ACCA to continue to support contemporary artists and engage with online audiences during COVID-19-related gallery closures. Australian artists from all backgrounds, career levels and practices were invited […]

3 Aug 2020

Never Alone by Kent Morris

Launching today, 3 August, a billboard project by Kent Morris is the first in an occasional series of off-site projects to be launched in the leadup to ACCA’s major exhibition in 2021, Who’s Afraid of Public Space?  For twenty seconds every three minutes, wedged between the usual schedule of advertisements, a digital billboard on St […]

3 Jul 2020

Announcing NIRIN NAARM: Presented in collaboration with the Biennale of Sydney and Brook Andrew, Artistic Director of NIRIN

In a unique new collaboration, ACCA is honoured to present NIRIN NAARM, a three-week satellite exhibition presenting selected key works from the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, titled NIRIN, under the artistic direction of acclaimed Indigenous Australian artist Brook Andrew.

1 Jun 2020

ACCA Open: Artists and projects announced and additional commissions added to the series

Six new projects have been selected for the ACCA Open, a new commissions series for contemporary art projects in the digital realm. Devised as a way for ACCA to continue to work with and support contemporary artists during the COVID-19-related gallery closures and disruptions, the ACCA Open was an invitation for Australian artists and collaborations […]

27 Apr 2020

Defining Moments: Australian Exhibition Histories 1968-1999

ACCA’s popular two-year lecture series Defining Moments: Australian Exhibition Histories 1968–1999 will this year be presented as illustrated video lectures.  Designed to shed light on the markers of change in Australian art from the last three decades of the twentieth century, Defining Moments focused last year on key exhibition and art making moments from 1968-1980.  This year the series […]

14 Apr 2020

Announcing ACCA Open

Australian artists are invited to submit proposals for a new series of digital works to be commissioned by ACCA and launched in August 2020.  Launched today, ACCA Open is an open call for contemporary Australian artists and artistic collaborators to present ideas for new works to be presented in the digital realm. Assessed by a […]

16 Mar 2020

ANNOUNCEMENT: Temporary Gallery Closure

ACCA is currently closed to support public health services and the wellbeing of our staff, artists, audiences and wider communities. We express solidarity with our fellow arts and cultural institutions and we recognise that engagement with the arts is essential to our wellbeing and is particularly important in times of uncertainty. Our forthcoming exhibition, Frances […]

30 Jan 2020

Announcing ACCA’s 2020 Exhibition Program

In 2020 ACCA continues to promote new art and bold ideas with major new commissions, solo exhibitions by Australian and international artists, and curatorial survey projects and public programs that collectively explore contemporary art’s relationship to wider social, cultural and political contexts. AUTUMN SEASON: CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN SOLO SERIES FRANCES BARRETT: MEATUS 4 April – 8 […]

11 Dec 2019

ACCA, CARRIAGEWORKS AND MONA ANNOUNCE DETAILS OF NEW WORK BY THREE WOMEN ARTISTS, MADE POSSIBLE BY THE KATTHY CAVALIERE FELLOWSHIP

In an unprecedented collaboration, ACCA, Carriageworks and Mona will present concurrent exhibitions of new work by three women artists: Frances Barrett (ACCA), Giselle Stanborough (Carriageworks) and Sally Rees (Mona), from March 2020. Announced in October 2018, Suspended Moment: The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship awarded $100,000 to each of the three artists to create new work. Made […]

29 Oct 2019

Feedback Loops

Feedback Loops 7 December 2019 – 22 March, 2020 ACCA’s summer season exhibition invites audiences to enter the fantastical worlds of six artists whose practices sample ideas and images from our past, present and speculative futures.  Feedback Loops explores the role of the cycle, the echo and reiteration in the personal mythologies of participating artists, and […]

26 Aug 2019

Claire Richardson announced as Executive Director of ACCA

ACCA Chair John Denton announced today the appointment of Claire Richardson as the new Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). Currently managing the Visual Arts Program at the City of Stonnington, Claire was formerly Exhibitions Manager at TarraWarra Museum of Art, with previous roles including Senior Exhibition Coordinator and acting Exhibitions […]

16 Jul 2019

Announcing the 2019 ACCA International Haroon Mirza

Haroon Mirza: The Construction of an Act Featuring: Jessica Aszodi, Julie Cunningham, Sarah-Jane Lewis and James Rushford Every year the ACCA International brings to Melbourne an artist at a pivotal point in their career – often presenting their work to Australian audiences for the first time.  In 2019, ACCA will present a survey of works […]

3 May 2019

On Vulnerability and Doubt

Questions of intimacy, awkwardness, modesty and desire are explored in ACCA’s winter season exhibition, On Vulnerability and Doubt. 29 June – 1 September 2019 On Vulnerability and Doubt brings together works by Australian and international artists all variously engaging with questions of vulnerability and doubt, modesty and desire, awkwardness and love, and the fragility and […]

29 Apr 2019

Dr Terry Wu joins ACCA Board of Directors

This week ACCA welcomed Dr Terry Wu to the ACCA Board of Directors.   Terry is an established advocate and supporter of contemporary art and dance in Australia, with extensive Board experience, focused on philanthropic engagement and strategic development, as well as a commitment to supporting artists and the making of new works. In 2014, […]

8 Apr 2019

ACCA, CARRIAGEWORKS AND MONA ANNOUNCE THE KATTHY CAVALIERE FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS

3  x $100,000 Fellowships for female-identifying Australian artists Artists Frances Barrett (NSW), Giselle Stanborough (NSW) and Sally Rees (TAS) are the recipients of Suspended Moment: The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship, a major new artist fellowship established in the name of Italian-born, Australian artist Katthy Cavaliere (1972–2012). Each artist will receive $100,000 to realise an ambitious new […]

21 Mar 2019

Influential Australian Artist Series 2019 Tom Nicholson: Public Meeting

The first large-scale exhibition to survey Melbourne artist Tom Nicholson’s acclaimed drawing, sculptural and social art practice, Tom Nicholson: Public Meeting opens at ACCA on 6 April as part of ACCA’s annual Influential Australian Artist Series. Tom Nicholson’s internationally regarded practice explores the relationship between history, collective actions and their traces. A common motif within his work […]

5 Mar 2019

ACCA farewells Linda Mickleborough and seeks new Executive Director

ACCA FAREWELLS LINDA MICKLEBOROUGH AND SEEKS NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR John Denton, Chair of the Board of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, announced today that Linda Mickleborough will be stepping down from the position of Executive Director. Linda said: ‘It has been wonderful to have been ACCA’s Executive Director over the past three years. The […]

15 Dec 2018

The Theatre is Lying: The inaugural Macfarlane Commissions

The Theatre is Lying The inaugural Macfarlane Commissions The first in a new biennial series of commissions exhibitions supported by The Macfarlane Fund, The Theatre is Lying features five ambitious new works from leading Australian and international artists who share an interest in the construction of alternative narratives and worlds through illusionary, illusory, cinematic and […]

22 Oct 2018

The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship

ACCA, CARRIAGEWORKS AND MONA ANNOUNCE THE KATTHY CAVALIERE FELLOWSHIP 3 x $100,000 Fellowships for Australian women artists The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Carriageworks and Mona (Museum of Old and New Art) today announced Suspended Moment: The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship, a major new artist fellowship in the name of Italian born Australian artist Katthy […]

27 Jul 2018

Eva Rothschild

Eva Rothschild  Continuing ACCA’s ongoing series of significant solo exhibitions by leading international artists, ACCA presents a major exhibition by Irish-born, London-based artist Eva Rothschild  from 28 September to 25 November, 2018. The first Australian survey of Rothschild’s work, this timely exhibition comes ahead of her forthcoming representation of Ireland at the 2019 Venice Biennale, […]

11 May 2018

A Lightness of Spirit is the Measure of Happiness

Announcing the inaugural Yalingwa exhibition:  A Lightness of Spirit is the Measure of Happiness  The significance of family, community and humour in contemporary Aboriginal life will be celebrated in the inaugural Yalingwa exhibition, A Lightness of Sprit is the Measure of Happiness, which opens on 7 July at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). […]

6 Apr 2018

Dwelling Poetically: Mexico City, a case study

21 April – 24 June 2018 One of the great cross-roads of north America, Mexico City has taken prominence not only as one of America’s most populous urban centres, and as Latin America’s strongest economy, but as a node of rich and potent cultural production, in part thanks to a whole generation of artists from […]

15 Dec 2017

Unfinished Business: Perspectives on art and feminism

ACCA’s Big Picture summer exhibition celebrates feminist concerns in recent Australian art Across Australia, and abroad, feminism is enjoying renewed – and timely – public interest. In the media, and on the streets, small triumphs are made daily: from Julia Gillard’s impassioned misogyny speech of 2012, to the Women’s March in January this year, which […]

12 Sep 2017

Yalingwa

Go to Yalingwa Program Page » Yalingwa is a major new program designed to support the development of outstanding contemporary Indigenous art and curatorial practice, with a primary focus on South East Australian First Nations artists within a national context. Announced today by the Victorian Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Natalie Hutchins, Yalingwa has been developed […]

26 Jul 2017

The Macfarlane Commissions at ACCA

The Macfarlane Commissions are a Biennial Commission Award to be developed in collaboration with The Macfarlane Fund and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, specifically designed for mid-career artists. Every second year for a period of six years, five Australian artists will be invited by the ACCA curatorial team to make a large-scale new work […]

26 Jul 2017

Introducing The Macfarlane Fund and The Macfarlane Commissions at ACCA

A new philanthropic fund established to honor the life of respected Melbourne businessman Donald (Don) Macfarlane who, throughout his life, took immense pleasure in the arts. Don Macfarlane (25.7.1939 – 11.6.2016) was the Managing Director of the Amcor Group and an active member of the Melbourne business and wider community. Chair of Leadership Victoria and […]

26 Jul 2017

Kader Attia

30 September – 19 November Last year’s recipient of France’s most prestigious art award, Le Prix Marcel Duchamp, French-Algerian artist Kader Attia proposes that the more we understand of our history, the better we can participate in society. Attia’s genre-defying practice explores ideas of cultural exchange, appropriation and the tangled relationship between extra-Occidental cultures and […]

24 May 2017

Greater Together

Greater Together Artists ask how can we live and work together better in this new group exhibition, opening 8 July, 2017.  Greater Together presents eight artist projects that complicate individual notions of authorship to focus on ideas of collaboration and cooperation as a means of agency and solidarity in a complex and changing world. While acknowledging the inherent […]

8 Mar 2017

Claire Lambe: Mother Holding Something Horrific

In this major exhibition of newly commissioned work, the artist’s most ambitious project to date, Claire Lambe employs sculpture, photography, biography and theatrical mise-en-scène to create intimate and intense psychological spaces in an ambitious attempt to describe the human condition in its cruel reality and horrifying glory. Known for her strange and often abject sculptural […]

25 Oct 2016

Sovereignty

For its inaugural Big Picture Summer Series, ACCA is proud to present Sovereignty, a major new exhibition focusing on the contemporary art of First Nations peoples of South East Australia, to celebrate the culturally and linguistically diverse narratives of self-determination, identity, sovereignty and resistance. Taking the example of Ngurungaeta (Elder) and Wurundjeri leader William Barak […]

28 Sep 2016

He An: Do You Think That You Can Help Her Brother?

Chinese characters gleaned from shopfronts and various sites throughout the city of Beijing, tell a dark story about love, desire and power in He An’s neon light installation, Do You Think You Can Help Her Brother?, which will be presented on the northern façade of ACCA’s iconic architecture as a keynote public project for Asia TOPA.

28 Sep 2016

Gerard Byrne: A late evening in the future

Throughout his varied practice, Byrne has explored historical ideas, conversations and sites in order to consider their contemporary relevance and to blur distinctions between past and future, myth and reality. The first major survey of the artist’s work in Australia, Gerard Byrne: A late evening in the future builds on this interest in collective history and dramatic reconstruction, employing the device of a playback system to convulsively shuttle and scroll through moments of memory and cultural amnesia.

3 May 2016

Painting. More Painting

Presented in two chapters across ACCA’s four exhibition galleries, Painting. More Painting is a big-picture focus on contemporary Australian painting, featuring the work of over 70 living Australian artists.

12 Apr 2016

Linda Mickleborough announced as new Executive Director for ACCA

ACCA Chair John Denton announced on Tuesday 12 April the appointment of leading arts manager Linda Mickleborough as the new Executive Director for the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.

28 Mar 2016

Ulla von Brandenburg: IT HAS A GOLDEN YELLOW SUN AND AN ELDERLY GREY MOON

ACCA presents the first Australian survey of works by celebrated German artist Ulla von Brandenburg from 21 May – 17 July

25 Jan 2016

NEW16

5 March – 8 May 2016 ACCA’s influential commissions exhibition returns in 2016, with ten promising Australian artists invited to make big new works in this popular annual series.

18 Dec 2015

Max Delany appointed Artistic Director of ACCA

ACCA Chair John Denton announced on Friday 18 December 2015, that leading Australian contemporary art curator Max Delany has been appointed Artistic Director of The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA).

8 Nov 2015

The Biography of Things

An exhibition that explores the labyrinthine stories that live behind things will run at ACCA through the summer months.

30 Sep 2015

THE SECRET GARDEN: Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg

Surreal and ultra–sensory, ACCA’s exhibition The Secret Garden by Swedish artists Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg opens up a netherworld of strange delights and encounters.

1 Sep 2015

ACCA in the City

Following the success of pop-up programs in regional Victoria and beyond, ACCA will again venture out of its Sturt Street home with a seven day program of events in and around the city of Melbourne from September 21-27.

15 Jul 2015

TV Moore: With Love & Squalor

An exhibition of works by pioneer Australian video artist TV Moore will open at ACCA on 15 August.

29 Apr 2015

Ryan Gander: READ ONLY

A new exhibition of works from British artist Ryan Gander opens at ACCA on June 4, 2015.

2 Feb 2015

NEW things for NEW15

13 March to 17 May, 2015 ACCA’s influential commissions exhibition offers selected artists the chance to make their dream work and have it shown in the ACCA galleries.

2 Feb 2015

MENAGERIE

13 December, 2014 to 1 March, 2015 ACCA’s summer exhibition celebrates the enduring link between humans and animals.

29 Sep 2014

Framed Movements

10 October – 23 November 2014 Framed Movements Presented by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in association with Melbourne Festival Framed Movements investigates the potential that lies at the shifting boundaries between dance and art.

29 Sep 2014

The ACCA Upstarts Program

14 October – 15 November 2014 A shipping container on the ACCA forecourt will house a series of weekly exhibitions from ACCA’s amazingly talented pool of artist volunteers and gallery staff, from October through November.

7 Jul 2014

Optical Mix, and Christian Capurro: SLAVE

16 August – 28 September 2014 SLAVE – Phone-videos capturing monumental works by American minimalist Dan Flavin, refashioned into large-scale filmic ‘captures’ by Australian artist Christian Capurro, feature in the upcoming exhibition SLAVE. SLAVE will be accompanied by the survey exhibition Optical Mix, which brings together a series of works that use light, kinetics and visual oscillations.

7 May 2014

the only way out is the only way in: Douglas Gordon

31 May – 3 August, 2014 Douglas Gordon appropriates images from popular culture and other sources to create his signature videos and photographic installations. He first came to prominence in 1993 with the work 24 Hour Psycho, a slowed down version of Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic film, and since then he has been at the forefront of contemporary practice worldwide.

28 Jan 2014

NEW14

March 14 – 18 May 2014 For twelve years now, ACCA has selected seven rising Australian artists and invited them to make a new work for the annual commissions exhibition, NEW.

26 Nov 2013

ACCA celebrates its 30th year reliving the past, and looking to the future…

November 2013 ACCA celebrates its 30th year reliving the past, and looking to the future…

25 Nov 2013

Crescendo

20 December 2013 – 2 March 2014 ACCA brings the spirit of Wagner into the New Year with the exhibition Crescendo. Opera Australia’s presentation of the Ring Circle may be over by then, but we will not be done with the Gesamtkunstwerk yet!

18 Nov 2013

Patricia Piccinini’s Skywhale in Melbourne

Monday 2 December, 2013 The hot-air balloon sculpture designed by Patricia Piccinini for the Centenary of Canberra celebrations will make its first appearance in Melbourne on the morning of Monday 2nd December.

2 Oct 2013

Tacita Dean: FILM

10 October – 24 November, 2013 Mount Analogue comes alive! Acclaimed international artist Tacita Dean presents her masterwork, FILM.

1 Oct 2013

In the Cut

10 October – 24 November, 2013 Since the early part of last century artists have used assemblage and collage techniques to question the political and social status quo, manipulate existing narratives, and challenge conventional distinctions between art forms. 

29 Jul 2013

Monika Sosnowska: Regional Modernities

10 August – 29 September 2013 ACCA is pleased to present the first major Southern Hemisphere showing of internationally acclaimed Polish artist Monika Sosnowska, following her recent site specific commission for Central Park, New York.

7 Jun 2013

ART#1

April 17 – May 30 2010 SACCA Regional Tour 1 A series of exhibitions curated by Melbourne’s internationally renowned Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) will be exhibited concurrently at three regional Victorian galleries from April.

7 Jun 2013

Peter Cripps

8 June – 25 July 2010 A major survey of work by pioneer Australian artist Peter Cripps will open in ACCA in June, as part of ACCA’s Influential Australian Artists Series.

7 Jun 2013

ACCA @ MIRKA At Tolarno Hotel: James Deutsher

From 29 July 2010 ACCA @ MIRKA At Tolarno Hotel: James Deutsher

7 Jun 2013

Bianca Hester

6 August – 26 September 2010 A major new work by Bianca Hester will see this influential Melbourne-based conceptual artist use ACCA’s main gallery as a sculptural prop – and a venue for her experimental, spatial playfulness.

7 Jun 2013

Gestures & Procedures

August 6 – September 26 2010 A new survey exhibition where artists use gestures, rituals and repetitions in video and photography opens at ACCA on August 6th

7 Jun 2013

Mortality

8 October – 28 November 2010 Some of the world’s leading artists explore life’s journey from the moment of lift-off to the final send-off and all the bits in-between in this new group exhibition, part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival.

7 Jun 2013

Joseph Kosuth: ‘(Waiting for-) Texts for Nothing’ Samuel Beckett, in play

21 December 2010 – 27 February 2011 ACCA is proud to present a new commission by renowned artist Joseph Kosuth.

7 Jun 2013

NEW11

12 March – 15 May 2011 NEW11, ACCA’s annual commissions exhibition, offers more artists from more places around Australia the opportunity to make something new and have it shown in 2011.

6 Jun 2013

Nathan Coley: Appearances

28 May – 24 July 2011 Turner prize exhibiting artist Nathan Coley creates a major commission and exhibition for ACCA.

6 Jun 2013

ART#2

May 2011 The second in a series of regional exhibitions curated by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) around the State will kick off in May at Horsham Regional Art Gallery.

6 Jun 2013

Things that go bump in the night

21 July – 7 August 2011 Two new public projects by Laresa Kosloff and Leber and Chesworth for the City Square

6 Jun 2013

Yael Bartana …and Europe will be stunned

August 9 – September 25 2011 Yael Bartana’s acclaimed film trilogy, …and Europe will be stunned, currently showing in the Polish Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale, will be shown at ACCA from 9 August.

6 Jun 2013

David Rosetzky: How to Feel

August 9 – September 25 2012 One of Australia’s most celebrated and internationally acclaimed artists David Rosetsky will present a new, cinema-scale video project in ACCA’s exhibition hall from August 9th.

6 Jun 2013

ACCA Pop-Up Program: Forecourt

16 August – 18 September 2011 A shipping container placed on the Grant Street side of the ACCA building in Southbank will house a series of new works created by young local artists.

6 Jun 2013

Power to the People

22 October – 20 November 2011 During the late 1960s, following events such as the Vietnam war and popular up-risings in Paris and elsewhere, a new artistic movement, focused on political and social activism, began to emerge. Artists began to move away from creating precious, discrete art objects to instigating dynamic situations, installations, happenings and interactive audience projects.

6 Jun 2013

Piplotti Rist: I Packed the Postcard in My Suitcase

21 December 2011 – 4 March 2012 Lush and Edenic, sexy but sinless, the hedonistic pleasure worlds created by Pipilotti will delight, refresh and chillax you.

6 Jun 2013

NEW12

17 March – 20 May 2012 Presented by The Balnaves Foundation NEW is the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art’s prestigious annual commissions exhibition.

6 Jun 2013

Berlinde De Bruyckere: We are all Flesh

2 June – 29 July 2012 ACCA is thrilled to announce an upcoming exhibition of selected works from extraordinary Belgian sculptor Berlinde De Bruyckere.

6 Jun 2013

Torsten Lauschmann

3 August 2012 ACCA is thrilled to announce a special presentation of German artist Torsten Lauschmann’s mesmerizing At the heart of everything a row of holes on 3 August 2012.

6 Jun 2013

Sculptural Matter

11 August – 23 September 2012 Including video and photography, cast and found forms, installations and assemblages, Sculptural Matter explores a sculptural way of thinking and making from both a historical and contemporary perspective.

6 Jun 2013

Pat Brassington: Á Rebours

11 August – 23 September 2012 A major survey by one of Australia’s most important and influential photo-based artists. This is the first extensive gathering of Brassington’s 30 years of practice and explores her ongoing aesthetic language derived from surrealism and cinema reinterpreted through photography.

6 Jun 2013

OURSELVES

11 October – 25 November 2013 A major international survey exhibition exploring the theme of ‘persona’, OURSELVES brings together a series of works where artists investigate their own and others inter-subjective experiences.

6 Jun 2013

NEW13

March 15 – May 12 2013 NEW, ACCA’s annual commissions exhibition, offers rising Australian artists the chance to make a bold, brave new work for ACCA’s large exhibition spaces. Each year, those selected for NEW are generally considered to be the artists to watch into the future.

6 Jun 2013

Mikala Dwyer

25 May – 28 July 2013 Three works, including a major sculpture series and a performance project comprise this new exhibition from one of Australia’s most important contemporary artists. Mikala Dwyer is a Sydney-based artist known for her playful, fantastical installations that explore matter and alchemical metamorphosis.

3 Jun 2013

Daria Martin

25 May – 28 July 2013 An exhibition of works by American born, British based artist Daria Martin opens at ACCA on May 25. Working between theatre, design and art, Martin’s hypnotic 16 mm films create a magical, mystical, mythical world, activating the spaces of dream and the unconscious. The artist describes her works as “daydream machines”.