Welcome to the first of our monthly Ace Art columns. Ace Art is an online art gallery who exhibits and sells the work of both local and international artists.
Our aim is to introduce international artists to Gibraltar and promote local artists abroad.
We’ve dedicated this first edition to a very talented group of local artists who recently exhibited in Bermondsey Project Space, London. Ace Art attended the exhibition which ran from the 6th-24th September and was organised by the Gibraltar Cultural Services on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and curated by Philippa Beale.
The exhibition included paintings, sculptures, photography and visual media providing varied subject matter and diverse materials. Lorraine Buhagiar presented a couple of paintings `Holding On’ and `From Memory’ conceived during the lockdown periods. Shane Dalmedo’s sculpture took prime position and adorned the gallery’s window front. Naomi Duarte who recently won the Alwani Summer Painting Exhibition, presented a series of scannographic photographs, printed and mounted on wooden boards. Local architect Leslie Gaduzo treated us to a series of paintings showcasing old and modern takes on Gibraltar’s streets. Alan Perez’s film paid tribute to the iconic Queens Cinema and questioned the price of financial gain or progress over cultural heritage and identity.
Ace Art were very impressed by the work of Zulaika Vallance. The young artist offered a very impacting short illustration film `Give me a sign’ showing how she was able to find motivation during the most challenging part of her life in which she was grieving the loss of her dad.
This amazing line up was completed by three very talented artists. Sebastian Rodriguez recipient of various local art awards, who wanted to convey the sacred and sense of space elements of Gibraltar in his Dockyard, and Sacred Heart Church paintings. The very charismatic and well know Karl Ullger, who has been nominated for this year’s senior cultural award presented a series of paintings showcasing not only Gibraltar’s romantic place in our sacred earth but our sense of uniqueness, expressive and infinite social capacities. Ace Art is very excited to be working with Karl in a project that we’ll be announcing early next year. The exhibition was completed with Monica Popham who was the overall winner at `Our Gibraltar’ art competition and was awarded The Ministry of Culture Award. She presented a selection of her iconic tiles in which she explores the tangible quality of sunlight in Gibraltar and how it interacts with our densely packed architecture. Monica will be releasing a limited edition print with Ace Art soon so follow us on our socials @aceart.gi for more information.
We conclude by thanking and congratulating GCS and everyone involved in this exhibition. Support our local artists by following them on their socials; I am sure they will be very grateful.
Until next month…….
Source: Our Sacred Earth, Our sense of place exhibition catalogue.
