2025 Porter Street Commission: Mark Valenzuela

Upcoming Exhibition
2 August - 20 September 2025
2025 Porter Street Commission: Mark Valenzuela

The Porter Street Commission awards $20,000 to a South Australian artist to create an ambitious new exhibition.

When

2 August to 20 September 2025

Access

Mark Valenzuela is an Adelaide-based artist who works between Australia and the Philippines. With a career spanning two decades, his work examines themes of conflict, dominance, occupation and resistance, often reflecting on his early experiences growing up in army base camps throughout the southern Philippines.

Using his characteristic combination of finely wrought ceramics with concrete, Mark will construct a structure exploring environments and places that are characterised by defensiveness, and the spaces that exist between the self and other beneath the social surface.

Feature Image: Mark Valenzuela in studio (2024). Photography by Rosina Possingham.⁠

Artist

Mark Valenzuela

Curator

Danni Zuvela

Support

Mark Valenzuela is the 2025 recipient of the Porter Street Commission – ACE’s annual award supporting new artwork commissions by South Australian artists.

ACE is supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and by the Government of South Australia through the Department of the Premier and Cabinet

ACErlu tampinthi, ngadlu Kaurna yartangka inparrinthi. Kaurna miyurna yaitya yarta-mathanya Wama Tarntanyaku. Parnaku yailtya, parnaku tapa purruna, parnaku yarta ngadlurlu tampinthi. Yalaka Kaurna miyurna itu yailtya, tapa purruna, yarta kuma puru martinthi, puru warri-apinthi, puru tangka martulayinthi. Ngadlurlu tampinthi purkana pukinangku, yalaka.

ACE respectfully acknowledges the Kaurna people are the traditional custodians of the Adelaide Plains. We recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land. We acknowledge that they are of continuing importance to the Kaurna people living today. We acknowledge Elders past and present.

ACErlu tampinthi, ngadlu Kaurna yartangka inparrinthi. Kaurna miyurna yaitya yarta-mathanya Wama Tarntanyaku. Parnaku yailtya, parnaku tapa purruna, parnaku yarta ngadlurlu tampinthi. Yalaka Kaurna miyurna itu yailtya, tapa purruna, yarta kuma puru martinthi, puru warri-apinthi, puru tangka martulayinthi. Ngadlurlu tampinthi purkana pukinangku, yalaka.

ACE respectfully acknowledges the Kaurna people are the traditional custodians of the Adelaide Plains. We recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land. We acknowledge that they are of continuing importance to the Kaurna people living today. We acknowledge Elders past and present.