Media Release

For immediate release 14/6/2018

South Australian icon Gerry Wedd to exhibit more than 1000 hand-crafted ceramics in new SALA Festival exhibition

Iconic South Australian ceramicist Gerry Wedd will subvert traditional displays of domestic handicrafts in his immersive new installation, SONGS FOR A ROOM, comissioned by ACE Open and showing as part of SALA Festival from Saturday 28 July – Saturday 15 September.

SONGS FOR A ROOM is Wedd’s most ambitious project yet, and the culmination of 40 years of artistic practice. It lines the interior of a free-standing structure with more than 1000 hand-crafted Delft-style tiles, wall plates and pottery in a dizzying tableau inspired in part by Victor Hugo’s extravagantly- decorated Hauteville House.

The celebrated potter, former Mambo designer and surfer has exhibited nationally and internationally with significant institutions including JamFactory, Ian Potter Museum of Art and Victoria and Albert Museum. Wedd’s signature blue and white pieces reflect the artists’ own irreverent and ecletic nature, and in SONGS FOR A ROOM extend to the heavy influence of music and lyrics on his life and practice.

Wedd’s ongoing interest in the intersection between craft and art, as well his consciousness of the commodification of art and culture, will see every item in the installation listed for sale, with 50% of proceeds to be donated to the Day Centre for Homeless Persons.

“This project has presented me with the opportunity to make a more immersive work,” said Wedd. “The main focus of my practice for the past decade has been the domestic space. I’m interested in our relationships with objects that are lived with, and the potential for their meaning to unfurl over time and through use. Traditional gallery and museum exhibitions don’t allow for this; however constructing a domestic space – a type of shelter – inside ACE Open is one way to bring socio-political content literally ‘to the table’.”

“We are so excited to present one of the country's most enduring and celebrated ceramicists, Gerry Wedd, as one of our two South Australian Artist Commissions in 2018,” said Liz Nowell, ACE Open CEO. “This project has afforded Gerry with the opportunity to step away from the constraints of craft-based exhibition displays, and fully embrace the immersive and explorative world of contemporary art. Having

worked closely alongside Gerry on the development of this project, I can assure you that audiences will be awestruck by SONGS FOR A ROOM."

SONGS FOR A ROOM is accompanied by a rollicking free artist talk, A History of Ceramics with Gerry Wedd, an exclusive studio visit and workshop opportunity at the artist’s Port Elliot Studio, and a curated playlist accessible online.

SONGS FOR A ROOM is one of two ACE Open South Australian Artist Commissions for 2018, alongside Julia McInerney’s The Garden.

ACE Open provides transformative contemporary art experiences for artists and audiences from its CBD art space in Adelaide, . As South Australia’s flagship contemporary art gallery, ACE Open presents a year-round program of free exhibitions by practicing South Australian, Australian and international artists. ACE’s programs extend the edges of contemporary visual art practice, embrace diversity and provide a space for artists and audiences to take risks.

ENDS

ACE Open is supported by and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, and is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. ACE Open maintains membership as South Australia’s only representative in the national peak organisation Contemporary Arts Organisations Australia, which represents Australia’s independent publicly funded key visual arts organisations.

Gerry Wedd is available for interview. For more information and interview requests please contact Stephanie Lyall, [email protected] or 08 8211 7505

Exhibition details and artist biography follows.

Exhibition details

SONGS FOR A ROOM ACE Open Gerry Wedd Lion Arts Centre North Terrace (West End) Exhibition Kaurna Yarta, Adelaide 28 July – 15 September Opening Friday 27 July, 5pm 11am-4pm Tue-Sat Free entry Public Programs aceopen.art / @ace_open A History of Ceramics with Gerry Wedd Saturday 11 August, 2-3pm Free

A Sunday Drive: studio visit and tile making workshop Sunday 9 September 2018, 10am-5pm $175 General / $139 Concession/ACE Associate. Includes travel to and from Port Elliot, lunch and workshop materials. On sale via aceopen.art from late June.

SONGS FROM A ROOM: Greatest Hits Playlist available via aceopen.art from 28 July

Biography

Gerry Wedd (born 1957) is one Australia’s most celebrated ceramicists. Having studying jewellery, painting, and drawing, Wedd obtained a Masters in Fine Art from the University of South Australia in 2005. Early on in his career, Wedd became a graphic artist for quintessential Australian design company Mambo, where he continued to design for them until 2006. Wedd has exhibited extensively in Australia and internationally, including Havana Bienal, JamFactory, Ian Potter Museum of Art and Victoria and Albert Museum. He has received numerous awards including the Hobart Art Prize in 2010 and the 1998 Sidney Myer Fund International Ceramics Award and is represented in public collections around the country including the Art Gallery of South Australia, Powerhouse Museum – Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Shepparton Art Museum and Queensland University of Technology.