Diner Club at Fragments; a widening vision

Special Event
25 July 2024
Diner Club at Fragments; a widening vision

Join us for a one-of-a-kind dinner experience inside the gallery space at Adelaide Contemporary Experimental.

When

Adelaide Contemporary Experimental

25 July 2024

6:30pm to 10:00pm

Access

Seated inside the sensorily-encompassing solo exhibition by Lee Salomone, Fragments; a widening vision, Diner Club brings together contemporary artists with the very best chefs, restaurants, wineries and breweries of South Australia to host a once-off dinner service curated specifically to the themes and ideas behind the exhibition.

The drinks menu features the great wines of ACE sponsor, Alpha Box and Dice.

The dinner menu will be crafted by local Chef and Tasting Australia Festival Director, Karena Armstrong. Her flagship, The Salopian Inn at McLaren Vale, is a jewel in the crown of regional dining in Adelaide’s south.

If you are purchasing tickets as a group, please email through the guests you would like to be sat with to: marketing@ace.gallery

If you have dietary requirements, please select this at checkout and note your requirements. 

On the menu

Karena Armstrong kneels in a garden. She smiles off-camera.
Karena Armstrong kneels in a garden. She smiles off-camera.
Courtesy Karena Armstrong (2023).

Karena’s work is recognised far and wide. Her flagship, The Salopian Inn at McLaren Vale, is a jewel in the crown of regional dining in Adelaide’s south.

As co-owner and chef, Karena has stretched her ideas and enthusiasm to develop a surprising, seasonal and ever-changing menu centered on Asian flavours and timeless techniques.

Karena - a mother of three young boys - has worked among some of Australia’s best chefs and kitchens. This includes completing her apprenticeship under Alla Wolfe Tasker at Daylesford’s Lake House, teaming up with Karen Martini at The Melbourne Wine Room and later at Icebergs and finally at Kylie Kwong’s restaurant Billy Kwong. It’s fair to say that Karena’s skills are sharp, her creativity unbridled and her love of high quality, local produce is at the heart of every dish.

The Salopian Inn remains one of the state’s most interesting and reputable dining experiences; and as the team are also committed to growing a large percentage of their own ingredients, they are also leading producers of the rich Fleurieu Peninsula region.

The overarching philosophy at The Salopian Inn is simple: guests should feel relaxed, comfortable, and eat in their own way. The aim is comfort but the details are all about quality – how diners experience that is up to them.

About Fragments; a widening vision

Close up of bronze cast xanthorrhoea grass tree spear. The tree spear sits on a wooden table. The sunlight highlights the detail.
Close up of bronze cast xanthorrhoea grass tree spear. The tree spear sits on a wooden table. The sunlight highlights the detail.
Lee Salomone's studio (2024). Photography by Peter Fong.

Fragments; a widening vision, poetically weaves together form and image interlacing memory with personal and ancestral histories.

Speaking to the pathways of experience altered by immigration and assimilation, Lee Salomone’s exhibition is grounded in intergenerational learning, an acknowledgment of First Nations country, and deepening our understanding of settler colonial experience. Fragments; a widening vision is the first major institutional exhibition by Lee Salomone in over a decade. 

Envisaged as an expansive metaphorical garden, fostered and cared for by elders, family, and educators Fragments; a widening vision proposes a site for growth. Through a process of bronze casting and a recalibration of found objects and natural materials, Salomone embeds allegory and narrative into his sculptures. By sowing new seeds of connectivity between migrant histories and the enduring cultural practices sustained by First Nations peoples, Salomone’s 2024 Porter Street Commission is an example of allyship and nurturing story-telling.

Fragments; a widening vision interrelates Salomone’s own familial connections to gardening and caring for Country, documenting his ongoing journey of self-education and consultation with Kaurna Elders and community. Rooted in the gallery space, Fragments; a widening vision is a passage for both story and memory, fostering growth and understanding between people and homelands.

  • Installation view of Lee's work in the gallery. Artworks are scattered across the floor.
  • Lee knees on one knee looking at one of his artworks on the gallery floor.
  • Installation view of Lee's work in the gallery. Artworks are scattered across the floor. One person is kneeling down looking at a particular artwork on the gallery floor.
Installation view of Lee's work in the gallery. Artworks are scattered across the floor.

About Lee Salomone

Lee stands in his home studio leaning on an open window looking outward.
Lee stands in his home studio leaning on an open window looking outward.
Lee Salomone in studio (2023). Photography by Rosina Possingham.

Since 1991 Lee Salomone has been expanding his visual literacy in installation, photography, sculpture, and works on paper. 

Lee has presented over thirty solo shows and exhibited in more than seventy group exhibitions. 

Lee has been a recent finalist in the Wyndham Art Prize (2023), Gallery M Contemporary Art Prize, (2023, 2022), The Tatiara Prize (2021), The Heysen Prize for Landscape (2020, 2016), Prospect Portrait Prize (2019, 2011), and the Whyalla Art Prize (2017, 2015). 

In 2023 Lee was the winner of the Gallery M Contemporary Art Prize and recipient of the 2024 Porter Street Commission. 

Lee is represented by Gallerysmith, Melbourne.

Previous Diner Club events

  • A section of a table, adorned with floral and light installation by Studio Botanic. The wall is blue.
  • A bottle of Charlotte Dalton wine sits on the edge of the table next to glass filled with red wine. The wall is blue.
  • A long table adorned with floral installations. Allison Chhorn's tent-like installation is in the background.
  • A part of a long table, adorned with a floral installation. Allison Chhorn's tent-like installation is in the background.
A section of a table, adorned with floral and light installation by Studio Botanic. The wall is blue.

Thank you to our sponsors

Diner Club is made possible with the generosity of excellent people and businesses. A sincere thank you to Mark Kamleh, Anton Andreacchio, Mia Gambranis, Shane Pope of Festival Hire, Dylan Fairweather of Alpha Box & Dice and Nadia Travaglini of Studio Botanic.

ACErlu tampinthi, ngadlu Kaurna yartangka inparrinthi. Kaurna miyurna yaitya yarta-mathanya Wama Tarntanyaku. Parnaku yailtya, parnaku tapa purruna, parnaku yarta ngadlurlu tampinthi. Yalaka Kaurna miyurna itu yailtya, tapa purruna, yarta kuma puru martinthi, puru warri-apinthi, puru tangka martulayinthi. Ngadlurlu tampinthi purkana pukinangku, yalaka.

ACE respectfully acknowledges the Kaurna people are the traditional custodians of the Adelaide Plains. We recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land. We acknowledge that they are of continuing importance to the Kaurna people living today. We acknowledge Elders past and present.