lowercase focus: October 15, 2020

Welcome to lowercase focus, a bi-monthly program which seeks to highlight emerging artists and exhibitions over the world.

My previous article focused on artists working in the digital domain, including Sayaka Katsumoto, Chenyu Lin and Tom White. As COVID-19 has made physical exhibition spaces, and by virtue, physical artists much harder to access, I believe these types of artmaking have gained greater prevalence, significance and importance within our current arts climate.

This article will continue my focus on digital alternatives to art, however, from the side of the institution. As arts professionals and curators are adapting to the current climate where many art events are being switched to digital formats too. These include digital exhibitions, fairs, newly established viewing platforms and educational programs to name only a few. Here are a few of my favourites.

May Fair Art Fair

Founded as a response to the closing of galleries and fairs in New Zealand, four curators and arts professionals launched May Fair in early 2020. The fair exhibits art from Aotearoa New Zealand and Pacific countries, either directly from emerging artists or from artist run galleries. The curatorial rubric of their most recent show was to exhibit arts practitioners from outside the ‘commercial’ sector, and therefore reimagined the stereotypical model of the fair in both physicality and curatorial design.

Website: https://mayfairartfair.com/

Whitney Museum Artport

Before coronavirus struck, many galleries and museums had digital platforms, such as Rhizome/The New Museum and the Serpentine Gallery’s Arts Technologies program. One that has expanded significantly during the lockdown however is the Whitney Museum’s program, Artport. It is a portal to digital and internet art, and acts as the museums technological arm which commissions, curates and hosts digital exhibitions. During COVID-19, they have worked with artists including Michael Mandiberg, Sam Lavigne and Tega Brain.

 https://whitney.org/artport

ACCA

In Melbourne, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) has been providing a digital database for artworks, discussions, lectures and other programs on a regular basis during lockdown. A non-collecting institution, ACCA has commissioned and supported a number of arts practitioners while galleries have been closed, ultimately helping artists to continue to create after physical exhibitions have been cancelled.

Website: https://acca.melbourne/

Bleed

Bleed is a six-year project which explores the digital conscience, presented collaboratively by the Arts House, Melbourne and the Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney. Artists include James Nguyen, Victoria Pham, Hannah Brontë and David Pledger and its experimental and experiential program is not to be missed. Many artworks, experiences and projects have been presented in a digital format on their website which allows visitors to encounter a new relationship between performative art from the safety of home.

Click here to check it out.

Digital Art Zurich

Digital Art Zurich is a new festival for digital art which will be launching October 28 2020. An Initiative of DA/S (Digital Arts and Sciences Switzerland Association), Digital Art Zurich is a five-day event which takes place physically and digitally, exhibiting socially relevant forms of new media and digital art. It houses exhibitions, installations, interventions and screenings and includes artists such as Niculin Barandun, Renick Bell, Legion Steven and Timo Hoogland among many more. Its digital fixtures are certainly worth keeping an eye out for!

Website: https://www.da-z.net/ 

Emerson Radisich is a curator, writer and educator currently based in Melbourne, Australia.