Celebrate good times come on!!!!!
Ace Art is celebrating its first year anniversary this July and we wanted to recap the good times.
We launched our online gallery last year on the 7th July with the aim to introduce new international artists into Gibraltar and promote and help local artists. Our first Art Revolution Exhibition held at the John Mackintosh Hall featured just over 80 artworks.
This exhibition took a few months to plan but thanks to the help I received from the very experienced Gail Francis-Tiron we managed to offer our artists and guests an amazing opening night with a very different and contemporary art collection. Our international headliner was none other than award winning American artist Jana Nicole. She has supported and assisted Ace Art from day one and I was personally honoured to introduce and showcase her work in Gibraltar. She attended the opening and fell in love with Gibraltar and its people and since then has released the exclusive Mons Calpe series and created a fan base with many locals who are already collecting her work. Our first exhibition also exhibited works by local artist Gail Francis-Tiron as well as art from locally based Warren Fox and Delia Balaguer whose abstract interpretations of Gibraltar’s landmarks were very well received. Ramon Maiden a personal favourite of mine completed the line up with his intricate tattooed pinup portraits. The Gibraltar Body Paint association provided the entertainment and surprised our guest with their amazing models fully painted with electrifying colours and designs.
After enjoying a great summer, we got ready to support the Gibraltar Culture Services at ‘Our Sacred Earth’ Bermondsey Exhibition in which Monica Popham excelled and made it clear that she had arrived! Whilst in Bermondsey we also met up with a very quirky group of artists who form the Cane Yo community in which our very own local artist Karl Ullger forms part of. It was at this event last September that Karl and I started planning our next exhibition opening on Tuesday 5th September 2023 at the Fine Arts Gallery.
With summer and Bermondsey done and dusted we came back to Gibraltar to start planning our autumn events. With the cooler weather creeping in, most of us start thinking about cosier ways to spend our evenings… so what would be better than an art showcase accompanied by wine, ham and cheese??? And so we started The Wine Art Club, Tony from The Wine shop started pairing his wine with our art and we held a monthly event where our artists could showcase and sell their work in a very social and fun environment.
The Wine Art Club social scene was like an event warm up for us as we got even busier during the pre Christmas period. We flew back to the London to attend Jana Nicole’s Solo in which she presented her 4m award winning botanical installation to a packed gallery.
Straight off the plane we headed back to the John Mackintosh Hall where we held our Pre Christmas Exhibition and promoted the ‘Gift of Art’. Encouraging our guests to gift art and it worked as our Father Christmas delivered a sledge full or art to new homes around Gibraltar.
This then led us to our biggest exhibition to date; Art Revolution March 2023 held at Gustavo Bacarisas Gallery it showcased around 150 pieces, with artworks from both local and international artists. It was a very contemporary exhibition pushing the boundaries and introducing Gibraltar to new styles. Jana Nicole was back showing her new botanicals and releasing the Mons Calpe series. A series dedicated to our very own Barbary Apes, flora and fauna. Ramon Maiden exhibited 7 new original pieces with many of our guests falling in love with many of his sexy pin up portraits. Heath Kane a politically oriented artist tested Gibraltar’s acceptance with his slightly controversial portraits of shamed politicians whilst Rich Levine gave the exhibition a different vibe with his colourful Disney and Mondrian characters.
We wanted to do something different this time round and introduced a photographic display which was headlined by Stephen Hermida. Stephen is a National Geographic acclaimed photographer with years of experience in travel and humanity with his work featured in Milan and New York. He formed a great tandem with Marco Prizont a young street photographer who released his ‘Sombras de Cadiz’ collection. Last but not least we showcased the works of the very talented multi discipline artist Naomi Martinez. Although she is already well known in Gibraltar our Art Revolution exhibition allowed her to show a brand new never seen before series which was very special to her and proved to be special to our guests too as she practically sold out. Our artists took some time out to meet up with the Bayside Art Students and gave them an insight into their own experience. Nathan Conroy and the Recycle Junkies engaged with a packed opening night gallery and treated us to an energetic contemporary dance performance.
BIG THANK YOU to all the artists and establishments mentioned who have helped us during our first year. We would also like to extend a massive thanks and gratitude to the Insight Magazine for our column, Gabriela Peralta from the Gibraltar Chronicle, The GBC news and Radio team and especially Kellyanne and Stefan Borge for covering and promoting all our events.
