David Pace Gallery
On view: August 6, 2021 – February 20th, 2022
(the exhibition will be closed to the public September 5 – October 1 while the ICA is in installation)
Public Walk-Through: *Canceled*. Learn more HERE.
Image Above: David Pace, Velocity, 2018, photograph, 21 x 14 inches. Collection of Diane Jonte-Pace.
David Pace: Speaking Through Images
Kind, warm, and always full of enthusiasm, David Pace was a soft-spoken man who spoke from his heart and through his art and images. He was an integral part of the ICA, serving on the board of directors for 25 years and chairing the curatorial committee for more than a decade. He guest-curated well-received ICA shows, including “This is not a Book” in 2001 and “Photographer Unknown” in 2002, and, for many years, provided installation shots for the website for almost every exhibition.
Given a Brownie Hawkeye camera for his eighth birthday in 1959, David immediately began taking photos of his family and friends and the nuns and priests who were his teachers. He later reflected on the significance of the birthday gift: “I realized from that very first experience that I could speak through images. I became a photographer that day.”
His photographic work includes a decade-long project on life in a rural village in Burkina Faso that was featured in Venice during the 2019 Biennale; a series of photographs he called “Velocity” taken from the Shinkansen bullet train between Tokyo and Kyoto; and a series documenting collections of plumb bobs, tin cars, shoes, and toys, “Re: Collections.” (David himself was an avid collector of old toasters, plastic saints, and power ranger action figures.) Working frequently with other artists and writers, he created award-winning music videos, including “Spirit of Gravity” with composer and musician Victor Bellomo; a book on World War II wirephotos, “Images in Transition,” with gallerist Stephen Wirtz; and a book on youth, aging, love, and change,“Where the Time Goes,” with his wife Diane Jonte-Pace. His childhood photographs will appear in a posthumous publication, “Hawkeye,” from Schilt Publishing in Amsterdam, as a companion volume to “Where the Time Goes.”
David the artist and David the man, ever optimistic, a smile on his face, and a ready laugh, will be sorely missed by all who knew him. If an institution can have a heart, David was, for many years, the heart of the ICA. We are pleased to be able to show our gratitude by dedicating this gallery in his honor.
~ Nicki Moffat & Diane Jonte-Pace
David Pace: Speaking Through Images is generously supported by our David Pace Legacy Fund donors. A special thanks to Pete and Nicki Moffat for their generous support in the design and build out of the space.
About David Pace
David Pace (1951-2020) was a photographer, filmmaker, educator, and curator. He taught photography at colleges and universities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. His work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at the Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA; Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR; The Griffin Museum, Winchester, MA; Gallery 1401, Philadelphia, PA; 511 Gallery, New York, NY and Wirtz Art, Oakland, CA. Pace’s photographs are in the collections of the San Jose Museum of Art, the Portland Museum of Art, the Crocker Museum of Art, Sacramento, CA and the deSaisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA. His work has been published in magazines, journals and newspapers internationally.