Artists Space Gallery

File:Artists Space Gallery.jpg

The gallery was founded in 1978{{Citation | author1=Germaine, Max | title=Artists and galleries of Australia and New Zealand | date=1979 | publisher=Lansdowne Editions | isbn=978-0-86832-019-9 }} by Melbourne painter and photographer Wes Placek.{{Cite web|title=Wes PLACEK {{!}} Artists {{!}} NGV|url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/artist/2453/|website=www.ngv.vic.gov.au|access-date=2020-05-16}}{{Cite web|title=Studio, (1994) by Wes Placek|url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/491.2009/|last=Deutsch|date=|website=www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627032142/http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/491.2009/ |archive-date=2014-06-27 |access-date=2020-05-16}}{{Cite web|title=Wes Placek|url=https://collection.heide.com.au/persons/337|website=Heide Museum of Modern Art|language=en|access-date=2020-05-16}}{{Cite web|title=PlaceMade: Australian Print Workshop {{!}} Wes PLACEK {{!}} Painters bowl|url=https://nga.gov.au/exhibition/apw/detail.cfm?IRN=125651|website=nga.gov.au|access-date=2020-05-16}}{{Cite web|title=Wes Placek|url=http://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/artists/9125/|last=Printmaking|first=Prints and|website=www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au|language=en|access-date=2020-05-16}} He was joined in the early 80's by his partner Sophie Nowicka a textile designer and artist,{{Cite web|title=Artwork - sculpture - 'Figure 3' by Sophie Nowicka - Victorian Collections|url=http://victoriancollections.net.au:8080/items/53f27b572162f10b2c08a6a7|website=victoriancollections.net.au|access-date=2020-05-16}} who assisted in administration of the gallery and in curatorial selection of exhibitions.

When it opened, the gallery occupied the top floor of a 1920s shopfront in the main street at 127 Buckley St., near the railway station in the working-class suburb Essendon. In 1987 the Gallery was relocated, closer to Melbourne CBD and amongst a growing number of other galleries.Cason, J. (1991). The photo gallery & workshop handbook. New York, NY: Images Press. Though it also showed other media, it was among contemporary specialist photography galleries The Photographers' Gallery, Brummels and Church Street that revived the medium as an art form. The new space, with four times the floor area,Beatrice Faust, 'Getting enough space is only half the job,' The Age, Wednesday, 19 Aug 1987, p.14 was in a former warehouse in North Fitzroy at 150 Park Street on the corner of Best Street, opposite a linear park created from the Inner Circle Railway Line which had closed in 1981.

A range of exhibitions included emerging artists and those well recognised nationally and internationally.{{Citation | author1=Taylor, Paul, 1957-1992 | author2=Prahran College of Advanced Education | title=Art & text | journal=Art & Text | date=1981 | publisher=Prahran College of Advanced Education | issn=0727-1182 }} While located in Essendon, in the opinion of The Age newspaper art reviewer Beatrice Faust, Placek's exhibitions "accumulated a lot of critical capital," as it "showed small collections of consistently good and sometimes excellent work," including Robert Mapplethorpe's 1983 photogravure suite 'Flowers', and also Bettina Rheims.{{Citation | author1=Rheims, Bettina | author2=Kehayoff, Gina | title=Female trouble | date=2001 | page=149|publisher=Schirmer/Mosel | isbn=978-3-8296-0022-4 }}{{Citation | title=Rheims, Bettina | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/152746734 | accessdate=17 May 2020 }} However, in her 1987 review, just after the relocation, Faust feared the extra space would affect the quality of the work shown, though favourable reviews continued.

It signifies the impact of the Gallery, that founder Placek was himself included, among many of the past exhibitors at Artists Space, in the landmark survey show{{Cite web|title=Australian Centre for Contemporary Art|url=https://acca.melbourne/exhibition/the-thousand-mile-stare/|website=acca.melbourne|access-date=2020-05-16}} and publication{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/27538499|title=The thousand mile stare: a photographic exhibition|date=1988|publisher=Victorian Centre for Photography|others=Agee, Joyce., Bennett, David., Victorian Centre for Photography., Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.|isbn=0-7316-2054-2|location=Melbourne|oclc=27538499}} of photography of the 1970s and 1980s, The Thousand Mile Stare.

Artists Space Gallery closed in 1990.

• 1984: Ryszard Otręba, prints{{Cite web|title=Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej ESTA - Polska Sztuka - Wystawy - Ryszard Otręba|url=https://galeria-esta.pl/dokument.php?id=305|website=galeria-esta.pl|access-date=2020-05-17}} (the poster from this solo exhibition is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia){{Citation | author1=Australian National Gallery | title=Acquisitions (30 June 1986) | journal=Annual Report | date=1986-06-30 | publisher=The Gallery | issue=97 of 1986 | pages=117 | issn=0314-9919 }}
• 1986, October 11–November 9: Sol Weiner{{Cite web|title=Sol Wiener, Artists Space, Essendon|url=https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=74997&pictaus=true|last=Hayden|first=David|website=Item held by National Gallery of Australia|access-date=2020-05-16}}
• 1986, November 17–December 14: Displaced Objects - Works by Chris BarryListing, The Age, Friday 14 Nov 1986, p.40{{Cite web|title=Displaced objects photographs by Chris Barry.|url=https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=72827|last=Unknown|website=Item held by National Gallery of Australia|access-date=2020-05-16}}{{Cite book|last=Barry, Chris, 1954-|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/427652474|title=Chris Barry, Her stories: [exhibition]|date=1993|publisher=University of Tasmania|others=Caputo, Raffaele., Plimsoll Gallery.|isbn=0-85901-531-9|location=Hobart|oclc=427652474}}{{Citation | author1=McIntyre, Arthur | title=Contemporary Australian collage and its origin | date=1990 | page=167,168|publisher=Craftsman House | isbn=978-91-640-0901-2 }}
• 1987, to August 30: Lauren McIntyre
• 1987, from Nov 4: "Just Wot”, an exhibition of visual poetry. Incl. Mimmo Cozzolino, Norma Pearce, Anthony Figallo, Julie Clarke-Powell’Briefs’, The Age, Tuesday 03 Nov 1987, p.14’Visual Poetry’, The Age, Friday, 20 Nov 1987, p.37{{Cite web|title=poetry eh? new century antiquarian books catalogue number 54, New Year 2012|url=http://www.newcentury.net.au/cat_54/cat_54.pdf|last=|first=|date=2012|website=New century anitquarian books|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320083741/http://newcentury.net.au/cat_54/cat_54.pdf |archive-date=2012-03-20 |access-date=}}
• 1987, to 31 December: Urban Structures, Janina Green, Lita Los Angeles, Bernice McPherson, Craig McGee, Wes Placek.Listing, The Age, Friday 18 Dec 1987, p.40
• 1988, to 29 Feb: Michael Caddy, Di Clark, Ann SlaterListing, The Age, Friday 05 Feb 1988, p.36
• 1988, 3–27 August: Wes Placek, Paintings{{Citation | author1=Placek, Wes | author2=Artists Space (North Fitzroy, Vic.), (host institution.) | title=Wes Placek: paintings | date=1988 | publisher=Artists Space | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/236568651 }}
• 1988, 7–25 September: Portraits by Paul Cox, Ben Lewin, Wolfgang SieversThe Age, Friday 26 Aug 1988, p.48
• 1988, September: Double ExposureThe Age, Wednesday, 07 Sep 1988, p.17
• 1988, to October 29: Peter Shaw, A Year of Bad WeatherCalendar. ‘Captured’. The Age, Friday 07 Oct 1988, p.33Good Weekend, The Age, Saturday 08 Oct 1988,p.67
• 1988, to 22 October: Louis Geraldes and Graham Willoughby, PaintingsThe Age, Wednesday, 12 Oct 1988, p.14
• 1988, to 18 November: Anthony Figallo and Lloyd Jones; Images of La Mama, and Photographic Collages by Chris Barry The Age, Friday, 18 Nov 1988, p.50The Age, Friday 25 Nov 1988, p.14
• 1988, to 18 December: Graduate Show, Victoria CollegeThe Age, Friday 02 Dec 1988, p.54
• 1989, to April 7: Still Life, photography by Janina Green, Robert Mapplethorpe, Wes Placek, Bettina RheimsThe Age, Friday, Mar 31, 1989, p.40Beatrice Faust, 'Wide range in black and white,' The Age, Tuesday, Mar 7, 1989 p.14
• 1989, to 29 July:  Wes Placek, Works from the kitchenBeatrice Faust, ‘Exhibitions with a touch of the unusual,’ The Age, Thursday, Jul 6, 1989, p.14
• 1989, 6—31 August: Grant Hobson, Transcending Toughness, and work by Paul WatkinsMurphy, Carmel. Male order: The photographic series from conception to practice [online]. Metro Magazine: Media & Education Magazine, No. 79, Autumn 1989: 26-29. Availability: ISSN: 0312-2654. [cited 16 May 20].
• 1990, to 28 July: Kodak Five Visions, Bill McCann, Charles Radnay, Janina Green, Wes PlacekGreg Neville, ‘Images explore myths, dreams and human reality,’ The Age, Wednesday, 18 Jul 1990, p.14
• 1990, to August 25: Ian McIntosh ‘Affection’; Rick Wood ‘Fugue’Greg Neville, ‘A world of fragments and isolated parts,’ The Age, Thursday, 09 Aug 1990, p.16
• 1990, to November 30: Phillip Institute of Technology 1990 Photography GraduatesThe Age, Friday 09 Nov 1990, p.38Greg Neville, ‘Photographic artists risk leaving viewer out of the picture,’ The Age Tuesday, Nov 20, 1990, p.14
• 1990, to December 22, Paintings and sculptures by Wes Placek, Erika Vike, Sophie Nowicka, Graham Willoughby, Brian McNamaraListing, The Age, Friday 14 Dec 1990, p.44

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Category:1978 establishments in Australia

Category:1990 disestablishments in Australia

Category:Art museums and galleries established in 1978

Category:Art museums and galleries disestablished in 1990

Category:Art museums and galleries in Melbourne

Category:Photography museums and galleries in Australia