Australian Pavilion Giardini 2

Ludoteca

Sydney-based curator Felicity Fenner will curate a group exhibition of early career artists at The Ludoteca, a former convent in the Castello district between the Giardini and the Arsenale. The exhibition ONCE REMOVED, will present artists – Vernon Ah Kee, Ken Yonetani, and Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro – through a series of installations unified by themes of displacement, Indigenous and environmental issues.
This exhibition will resonant with international audiences with its themes of displacement and environmental issues, while also revealing a diversity of work by early career Australian artists.

Vernon Ah Kee












Vernon Ah Kee, Cant Chant, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2007 (installation view)

Vernon Ah Kee creates work dealing with issues facing Australian Indigenous culture in a post-colonial society. He is best known for his monumentally scaled pencil portraits of Aboriginal family members, who gaze defiantly at the viewer.
Vernon Ah Kee is a younger generation Indigenous artist who lives and works in Brisbane, Queensland. He received his doctorate in Visual Arts from Queensland College of the Arts in 2007. His work explores Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous culture in contemporary society. Using text, video and drawing, Ah Kee references past racial atrocities and the way they resonant in the present context.

Artist Representation Milani Gallery, Brisbane
Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro














Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro, Deceased Estate, Glashaus Gallery, Weil, am Rhein, Germany, 2004

Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro explore the space between creation and consumption, questioning the layers that disguise the simple economics that underscore our increasingly complex lives. Their site-specific investigations of certain places are also investigations into the perception of the way things shift. Their art material is often found on site, recycled and reused in works that ponder the material and immaterial value of everyday objects. The artists’ explorations into formality, materiality, accumulation and transition manifest in works that relate closely either to the site in which they’re presented or from whence they derive.

More information: http://www.claireandsean.com/
Artists Representation: Barry Keldoulis Gallery, Sydney

Ken Yonetani














Ken Yonetani, Sweet Barrier Reef, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, 2008

Australian based Japanese artist Ken Yonetani creates sculptural installations made from ceramics and other similarly fragile materials. His work draws on the traditions of his Japanese cultural heritage to address contemporary environmental crises facing many parts of the world.
Ken Yonetani was born in Japan in 1971, where he studied pottery under the master Toshio Kinjo. He moved to Australia in 2003, gaining an MA from the Australian National University’s School of Art in 2005. Yonetani’s current work uses fragile and ephemeral materials as a metaphor for modern day consumerism and destruction of the natural environment.

More Information: www.diannetanzergallery.net.au
Artists Representation: Dianne Tanzer Gallery, Melbourne