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69 Capel Street, West Melbourne VIC 3003

Open 12pm-5pm, Thursday - Sunday

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KINGS Artist-Run is a wheelchair accessible venue. Unfortunately, there is no wheelchair accessible toilet. Please contact the gallery with any access requirements and we will endeavour to support your visit.
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About

Kings Artist-Run provides a location for contemporary art practice, supporting distinctive experimental projects by artists at all stages of their careers.
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KINGS Artist-Run acknowledges the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we operate.

We offer our respect to Elders both past and present and extend this offer to all Australian First Nations people.

MAGIC HAPPENS

David Ashley Kerr
David Attwood
Līga Spunde


25 April 2024–26 May 2024

“Magic happens” explores notions of productivity, positivity and spirituality in our clunky postdigital future. The artists in this dual solo exhibition are interested in the high and low tech of our everyday, traversing power relations, productivity and labour, and the lines between utilitarian and hedonic value. A far cry from the slick shiny edges and eternal wisdom of machine learning, this exhibition looks at clumsy AI and robot fails, while celebrating the magic in both the uncertainty in and of, promised technophoric utopias. Combining the work of Latvian artist Līga Spunde and Australian artist David Attwood for the first time, this new collaboration positions two emerging artists born in the same year at the precipice of the digital native generation. 

Curated by David Ashley Kerr. MAGIC HAPPENS is supported by the City of Melbourne Arts Grants.

Exhibition text available here.

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  • David Ashley Kerr is an Australian curator and writer-researcher living and working on Gunai-Kurnai land in Eastern Victoria. David has played an active role in arts and cultural development in Melbourne (Naarm), as well as in Northern and Eastern Europe. David is passionate about community-engaged art and ecological art practices, and is the custodian of LOW Gallery + Projects, an established independent art space in Rīga, Latvia. He is currently Senior Curator at Latrobe Regional Gallery on Braiakaulung country in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland.
  • David Attwood (b. 1990, Perth) makes artworks in the forms of readymades, found objects and sculptural assemblages using contemporary commodities. His work broadly explores concepts pertinent to contemporary capitalism. In 2016 Attwood completed a PhD in Art at Curtin University, and in 2019 completed the SOMA Summer program, SOMA, Mexico City. He has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally in institutional, commercial, artist-run, online and offsite settings. Attwood is the co-editor of the book The Art of Laziness: Contemporary Art and Post-work Politics (Art + Australia, 2020) and runs the project space Disneyland Paris.
  • Līga Spunde (b.1990, Rīga) makes multimedia installations where personal narratives are closely intertwined with carefully constructed fictions. The interpretation and use of recognizable characters serves as an extension of her personal experiences, while tapping into general truths and accepted tropes. Usually, the content of the work determines the physical form of the conception, so a variety of media, techniques and materials are used in her unique installations. Spunde’s work is present in public and private collections across Europe, and she was nominated for the national Latvian Purvītis Prize in both 2022 and 2020.