NEW13

March 15 – May 12 2013
Benjamin Forster, Jess MacNeil, Alex Martinis Roe, Sanne Mestron, Scott Mitchell, Joshua Petherick, Linda Tegg
Presented by The Balnaves Foundation

Alex Martinis Roe, The Practice of Doing, 2013, courtesy the artist

The artists to watch in 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.

Proudly supported by the Balnaves Foundation, NEW13 has been curated by ACCA’s Associate Curator Charlotte Day. The selected artists are:

Benjamin Forster (WA) – will apply the logic of computer programming to art making literally pulling apart LCD screens and I phones and repurposing them as poetic devices.

Jess MacNeil (London based) – has detoured from her usual digital format to 16mm film to explore human movement through space and time in the wintery landscape of London’s Trafalgar Square

Alex Martinis Roe (Berlin based) – will create a sound installation featuring stories of friendship and mutual support, re-contextualising the radical feminist practices devised by the Milan Women’s Bookstore Collective.

Sanne Mestrom (VIC) – pays homage to heroic moments in the Modernist paintings of Pablo Picasso and Giorgio Morandi with a sculptural installation – her weeping woman will actually weep tears

Scott Mitchell (VIC) – has undertaken an extensive period of research into how the sun moves over ACCA and has devised ingenious way to harness sunlight and direct it into the furthest reaches of the hermetically sealed galleries.

Joshua Petherick (VIC) – will record the ghosts in everyday imaging technologies pushing the idea of image reproduction to a new unnatural conclusion

Linda Tegg (VIC) – has worked with trained dancers and a set of mirrored props to create a performance video shot in the National Gallery of Victoria’s Federation Court.

The NEW exhibition series, now in its 11th year, is one of Australia’s most important commissioning exhibitions for upcoming artists. Established with the intention of providing a springboard for these artists, NEW provides the financial means, and curatorial and technical support for selected artists to create a dream work, and have it shown to a wide and varied audience. Previous NEW alumni include Angelica Mesiti, Marco Fusinato, Rebecca Baumann, Fiona Connor, David Rosetzky, Anastasia Klose, Emily Floyd, Darren Sylvester, Stuart Ringholt and Agatha Gothe-Snape.

The exhibition also offers audiences a sample of the latest materials, methods, themes and ideas emanating from current contemporary artistic practice.

“This year, artists represent a broad range of practices from video and film, to sculpture, collage, computer programming, archiving, performance and live events” says curator Charlotte Day. “While it has no theme, NEW13 will reflect on particular artistic practices: sampling and copying material, augmenting and adapting things, examining and reworking technologies and forming new viewpoints on social and historical events.”

Charlotte Day has a wealth of experience across the contemporary art sector in Australia through her position as Associate Curator at ACCA, and past posts at the Centre for Contemporary Photography and Gertrude Contemporary. Other independent curatorial projects include Ricky Swallow’s exhibition for the Australian Pavilion at Venice (2005), Callum Morton’s Venice Biennale project (2007), the TarraWarra Biennial (2008), NEW09 at ACCA (2009), Adelaide Biennial (2010), and Marco Fusinato’s exhibition at IMA and Artspace (2012).

NEW13 – March 15 – May 12, 2013

ACCA (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art) is Australia’s premier Kunsthalle, or temporary exhibition space. Located in Melbourne’s Southbank arts precinct, ACCA is a world-class gallery space with a program of exhibitions from the very best local and international contemporary artists.

Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 111 Sturt Street, Southbank.
Gallery hours: Tuesday-Friday 10am-5pm, Weekends and Public Holidays
11am–6pm. Mondays by appointment.
Tel: 03 9697 9999. Admission: Free. www.accaonline.org.au
For further media information: Katrina Hall on 03 9697 9999,
mobile 0421 153 046 or email kathall@ozemail.com.au

ACCA is supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.

The Balnaves Foundation supports eligible organisations that aim to create a better Australia through education, medicine and the arts with a focus on young people, the disadvantaged, and Indigenous communities.