By ASPEN ABNER
Can Yavuz and Glen Ames have opened their second Ames Yavuz gallery in Sydney on 114 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills, and have launched the inaugural exhibition MEMORY/MYTH to celebrate.
Originally Yavuz Gallery in Singapore, the art curators expanded to Sydney in 2019 and became the first commercial art gallery to have a permanent display space in Australia. With the new Commonwealth Street location, Ames Yavuz will be able to diversify their programming even further.
The MEMORY/MYTH exhibition is focused on video installations that explore experiences of indigeneity, diaspora, and the lingering remnants of colonialism. It will feature 27 internationally renowned artists from across the world – 20 of these having never been seen in Australia.
Works on display at Ames Yavuz gallery
There are several notable works in the exhibition, such as the 12-minute video project Blinded by the Very Force It Imagined It Could Handle, by Irish photographers Donovan Wylie and Peter Mann – it’s the first time the work has been shown outside of Ireland. Mónica de Miranda, who is currently representing Portugal at the Venice Biennale, showcases The Island (A ILha).
Tromarama, an Indonesian collective, presents Growing Pillars and Turkish artist Fikret Atay is displaying Tinica, a video work that highlights the tension between civilian life and military occupation that has garnered acclaim around the world in other prestigious galleries like the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Istanbul Modern, SFMOMA, and Hammer Museum.
Ames Yavuz is committed to showcasing international artists in Australia and also to highlighting impactful messages for gallery viewers. Director of Ames Yavuz, Ananya Mukhopadhyay, explains that the show pulls “common threads across diverse regions and history of colonialism to celebrate how disparate communities interrogate, divine, and rewrite their own experiences of erasure and displacement.”
Founding Director Can Yavuz believes this gallery “has a responsibility to provide platforms that invite ambition and facilitate uncensored and uncompromised ways of celebrating art…It is not only an opportunity but a necessity.”
Ames Yavuz is located at 114 Commonwealth Street, Surrey Hills, and is open from Tuesday to Saturday 10 am-6 pm until Saturday, July 13th.
For further information, please visit amesyavuz.com.