Artists Space Gallery facts for kids
Artists Space Gallery was an Australian art gallery. It was located in Melbourne and showed mostly photography, but also other types of art. The gallery was active throughout the 1980s.
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Starting the Gallery
A talented painter and photographer named Wes Placek started Artists Space Gallery in 1978. He was from Melbourne.
In the early 1980s, his partner, Sophie Nowicka, joined him. Sophie was an artist and textile designer. She helped manage the gallery and choose the art for shows.
Where the Gallery Was Located
When it first opened, the gallery was on the top floor of an old shop. This building was at 127 Buckley Street in Essendon. Essendon was a working-class area near a railway station.
In 1987, the gallery moved to a new spot. This new location was closer to the center of Melbourne. It was also near many other art galleries.
The new space was much bigger, about four times the size of the first one. It was in a former warehouse at 150 Park Street in North Fitzroy. This area was across from a park that used to be a railway line.
Artists Space Gallery was known for showing photography. It was one of several galleries that helped make photography popular as an art form again. Other galleries like The Photographers' Gallery and Brummels also focused on photography.
When the Gallery Closed
Artists Space Gallery closed its doors in 1990.
Some Exhibitions Shown
The gallery hosted many different art shows. Here are a few examples of the types of exhibitions you could see:
- 1984: Ryszard Otręba showed his prints. A poster from this show is now in the National Gallery of Australia.
- 1986: Shows included works by Sol Weiner and Chris Barry. Chris Barry's exhibition was called Displaced Objects.
- 1987: Exhibitions featured artists like Lauren McIntyre. There was also a unique show called "Just Wot” which displayed visual poetry. This show included artists such as Mimmo Cozzolino and Norma Pearce.
- 1987: Another exhibition was Urban Structures. It featured art by Janina Green, Lita Los Angeles, and Wes Placek.
- 1988: Shows included paintings by Wes Placek himself. There was also a special exhibition of portraits by famous photographers like Paul Cox and Wolfgang Sievers.
- 1988: Other shows included A Year of Bad Weather by Peter Shaw. There were also photographic collages by Chris Barry.
- 1989: An exhibition called Still Life featured photography by Janina Green, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Wes Placek.
- 1990: The gallery showed Kodak Five Visions, featuring artists like Bill McCann and Janina Green. There was also a show for photography graduates from Phillip Institute of Technology.
