User:Siolocke/sandbox

Barry Ace (born 1958) is an Anishinaabe (Odawa) photographic and multimedia artist from Sudbury, Ontario [MuseumofCivilization]. Ace’s work includes mixed media paintings [torontocarpediem], and mixed media textile and sculptural work that combines traditional Anishinaabe textiles and beadwork with found electrical components [southsidestory]. Ace has a strong interest in combining traditional and contemporary technologies, aesthetics, and techniques in his artwork [manitoulin.ca].

Early Life

Barry Douglas Ace was born in 1958 on Manitoulin Island [MuseumofCivilization]. He is a band member of M’Chigeeng First Nation, Manitoulin Island [southsidestory]. Ace’s surname is pronounced “Es” and translates to the Ojibwe word for “clam” [nmai]. Ace was first introduced to techniques that he would later employ in his artistic practice at the age of seven or eight when he helped his great-aunt Annie Owl-McGregor to make Anishinaabe splint-ash baskets [nmai]. He also found inspiration from the beadwork, quillwork, and basketry made by his grandmother Mary McGregor-Ace [nmai].

Education

Barry Ace initially studied to be an electrician at Cambrian College but switched to graphic arts [manitoulin.ca]. Ace’s background knowledge in electricity did however later play a role in his artwork in his mixed media works that include electrical components [manitoulin.ca].

Ace has taught Native Studies at the University of Sudbury, and Canadian Studies at Laurentian University, and Carleton University [MuseumofCivilization]. In 2015 he taught a workshop at the Ottawa Art Gallery where participants made a collective mixed media map of the city of Ottawa [NAC]. He also led a workshop for children from an Ojibwe immersion school in the fall of 2016 where the artwork produced by the children was later displayed at the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation [manitoulin.ca]. Ace is participating in the Nigig Visiting Artist Residency put on by the Indigenous Visual Culture Program at OCAD University in the winter of 2018 [torontocarpediem].

Themes

Much of Barry Ace’s work uses found materials like capacitors, resistors, and light-emitting diodes, and traditional Great Lakes-style floral beadwork to comment on “cultural endurance undeterred by centuries of colonial oppression and rapid social change” [CanadianArt][nmai]. Ace’s work explores the relationship between historical techniques and traditions and contemporary materials and subject matter [nmai]. By referencing the history of Anishinaabe textile art in works that use contemporary mass-produced materials, Ace investigates the dialogue between Indigenous and European cultures, much like fellow artists Rosalie Favell and Jeff Thomas do [Carol Payne, 121].

In 2010, Ace performed A Reparative Act, a performance of four solo dances in the traditional Woodland style in Paris referencing the nineteenth-century dance performances of Chief Maungwadaus in Britain and Continental Europe [WeAllBecomeStories, 139]. Ace’s performance and essay was part of Robert Houle’s Paris/Ojibwa research project which opened at the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris [Denise Frimer, 25].

Exhibitions

Barry Ace’s artwork has been exhibited at galleries such as the National Gallery of Canada [NGC], the Ottawa Art Gallery, Karsh-Masson Gallery [OCADU], the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba [OCADU], Winnipeg Art Gallery [OCADU], the Royal Ontario Museum [torontocarpediem], and the Canadian Museum of History [CanadianMuseumofCivilization]. Ace’s work has been collected by the Canada Council Art Bank [ArtBank], Woodland Cultural Centre, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ottawa Art Gallery, Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development Canada, the National Gallery of Canada, Nordamerika Native Museum, the City of Ottawa, and Global Affairs Canada [OCADU].

Some notable exhibitions that Ace has been included in have been the Canadian Biennial at the National Gallery of Canada (2017) [NGC], Insurgence/Resurgence at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (2018) [wag], raise a flag: works from the Indigenous Art Collection (2000 - 2015) at OCAD University (2017) [ocadu], Always Vessels at Carleton University Art Gallery (2017) [cuag], Every.Now.Then: Reframing Nationhood at the Art Gallery of Ontario (2017) [AGO], Native Fashion Now: North American Indian Style at the Peabody Essex Museum (2016), Memory Landscape at Museu Nogueira da Silva, Universidade do Minho (2016), and In/Digitized – Indigenous Culture in a Digital World (007 with Special Agent Robert Houle) at SAW Gallery (2013).

Ace has curated several shows himself, including A Celebration: The Art of Canada’s First Peoples (Rideau Hall, Ottawa, 1996-1997), Perpetual Bundle (Hull, 1996), and inter/SECTION (Hull, 1998) [MuseumofCivilization].

Selected works

2006 Reaction – footwear
2010 A Reparative Act – performance
2013 Healing Dance 1 – painting
2013 Urban Bustle – mixed media
2014 Nigik Makizinan - Otter Moccasins
2016 Bandolier for M'Chigeeng – mixed media
2016 Gichi-zaaga’igan: Lake Ontario – mixed media
2017 Bandolier for Alain Brosseau – mixed media

Awards

In 2015, Barry Ace won the K.M. Hunter Artist Award for visual arts [OntarioArtsFoundation].

Organizations/groups

With Ryan Rice, Ron Noganosh, and Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskew in 2005, Barry Ace co-founded the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective (ACC) [Jesse McKee, 15]. Connecting Indigenous curators and cultural producers across Canada, the ACC has played an important role in gathering a strong Indigenous arts community and supporting curatorial and writing projects that share the many voices that make up that community [Jesse McKee, 15]. Barry Ace also started the OO7 (Ottawa Ontario Seven) Collective, a group of Indigenous artists that includes Ariel Smith, Rosalie Favell, Frank Shebageget, Leo Yerxa, Michael Belmore, Ron Noganosh, and invited “special agents” [mixedbagmag][CentralArtGarage]. The group provides an alternative and experimental space for Ottawa-based Indigenous artists at different stages in their careers [CentralArtGarage].

Barry Ace:

https://ottawamagazine.com/arts-and-culture/artful-musing/special-agents-join-007-for-150-exhibit-its-complicated-hull-industrial-space-displays-endless-landscapes/

Museum of Civilization: http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/aborig/jaillir/jaillbae.shtml

https://southsidestory.ca/2016/10/barry-ace-five-great-lakes-art-gallery-sudbury/

http://www.gallerieswest.ca/artists/previews/barry-ash-unites-traditions-and-technology/

NGC 2017 Biennial list of artists: https://www.gallery.ca/whats-on/exhibitions-and-galleries/canadian-biennial-2017

https://canadianart.ca/reviews/material-witness/

Art Bank: https://artbank.ca/for-king-and-country/

Book by Barry Ace: http://agp.on.ca/shop/robert-houle/

http://www.imaginenative.org/exhibitions/raise-a-flag/

K.M. Hunter award: http://www.ontarioartsfoundation.on.ca/news/99

Nigig artist residency: http://toronto.carpediem.cd/events/5478555-nigig-air-welcome-lunch-and-artist-talk-barry-ace-at-indigenous-visual-culture-at-ocad-university/

Nigig artist residency: https://www2.ocadu.ca/news/visual-artist-barry-ace-joins-ocad-university-for-nigig-residency

Interview with Barry Ace: http://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2017/02/nfn-barry-ace.html

Ace, Barry, and July Papatsie. Transitions : contemporary Canadian Indian and Inuit art = Transitions : l'art contemporain des Indiens et des Inuits du Canada. Canada. Dept. of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.; Canada. Dept. of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.; Centre culturel canadien (Paris, France); Waikato Museum of Art and History, 1997. (Available at OttawaU Off-Campus Storage - Annex N 6549.5 .A54 T73 1997).

OttawaU sources Barry Ace online: http://uottawa-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?fn=search&ct=search&initialSearch=true&mode=Basic&tab=default_tab&indx=1&dum=true&srt=rank&vid=UOTTAWA&frbg=&tb=t&vl%28freeText0%29=%22Barry+Ace%22&scp.scps=scope%3A%28UOTTAWA_DSPACE%29%2Cscope%3A%28UOTTAWA_III%29%2Cscope%3A%28UOTTAWA_SFX%29%2Cprimo_central_multiple_fe

Ace, Barry in the NGC library: http://bibcat.gallery.ca/search/a?a

OO7 info: http://centralartgarage.com/oo7-its-complicated/

OAG Workshop led by Barry: https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/11823

McGill info on Barry Ace’s practice: https://www.mcgill.ca/dise/research/facultyresearchprojects/zhigwe-ace-nigik-makizinan

Info about blanket great lakes series and some background on Ace: http://www.manitoulin.ca/2016/09/07/barry-ace-exhibit-now-september-15-ocf/

Info about OO7 and central art garage show: http://mixedbagmag.com/tag/barry-ace/

CUAG: http://www.cuag.ca/index.php/exhibitions/400/

WAG: http://wag.ca/art/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions/display,exhibition/206/insurgence-resurgence

Raise a flag exhibition: https://www2.ocadu.ca/event/raise-a-flag-works-from-the-indigenous-art-collection-2000-2015

AGO Reframing Nationhood: http://www.ago.net/every-now-then-reframing-nationhood

McKee, Jesse. Jesse McKee in Conversation with the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective's Steve Loft, Candice Hopkins and Leanne L'Hirondelle. Fuse Magazine, Spring, 2010. 14, https://search.proquest.com/docview/219946670?accountid=14701 (accessed February 7, 2018).

Frimer, Denise. 2011. "PARIS/OJIBWA: INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT HOULE." C: International Contemporary Art no. 112: 23-28. Art & Architecture Source, EBSCOhost (accessed February 7, 2018).

Payne, Carol and Jeffrey Thomas. 2002. "Aboriginal Interventions into the Photographic Archives: A Dialogue between Carol Payne and Jeffrey Thomas." Visual Resources 18 (2): 109-125. doi:10.1080/01973760290011789. http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/01973762/v18i0002/109_aiitpabcpajt.

Halkes, Petra. Emergence from the Shadow: First Peoples' Photographic Perspectives. Canadian Museum of Civilization. Hull]. Border Crossings, 11, 2000. 93, https://search.proquest.com/docview/215541217?accountid=14701 (accessed February 7, 2018).

Payne, Carol. "COUNTERPOINT." Afterimage, vol. 27, no. 6, May/Jun2000, p. 16. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=3126084&site=ehost-live