Artist Talk

Join artist Sally Smart in conversation with ACE Open CEO and curator Liz Nowell, as they discuss Smart’s latest body of work, The Violet Ballet, currently showing at ACE Open.SALLY SMART (b. 1960) is one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists recognised internationally for large-scale cut-out assemblage installations and increasingly, performance and video, her practice engages identity politics and the relationships between the body, thought and culture including trans-national ideas that have shaped cultural history. The recipient of numerous awards and prizes, Smart is currently Vice-Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne, and board member (Deputy Chair), National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA).Sally Smart recent exhibitions and projects include: NGA Play, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia (2018-19); The Choreography of Cutting, Postmasters ROMA at 1/9 Unosunove, Rome, Italy (2017);  Prima Visione #4, (OFCA) International, Sarang Building, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; (2017); Vestibule Commission, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Australia (2017); Art Collaboration with Italian fashion House Marni, Milan, Italy (2017); The Choreography of Cutting Postmasters Gallery, New York (2016); Odyssey: Navigating Nameless Seas, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore (2016); Conversation: Endless Acts of Human History (with Entang Wiharso), Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Jakarta (2016); Dark Heart: 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2014); Negotiating This World, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2013); The Pedagogical Puppet Contemporary Galleries, University of Connecticut, CT., USA (2012); Contemporary Australia: Women, Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane, Australia; and No Name Station, Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China.LIZ NOWELL is the inaugural CEO of ACE Open and former Executive Director of the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia (CACSA). Between 2010 – 2015 she was based in Sydney and New York, where she worked as an independent curator, writer and lecturer, working with organisations such as the Brooklyn Museum, Desart, Sydney College of the Arts, and SafARI 2014, of which she was co-Director. Prior to this, Liz held curatorial and administrative positions at the University of NSW Art and Design, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Tandanya and Country Arts SA.