If I Were A Juror

The votes are in and the public vote top 20 are up. I can’t say I’m surprised by most of them. Once again, the focus has fallen mostly on items with high degrees of technical difficulty or a certain kind of… gimmick. Still, there are a few shining stars in the bunch and one can only hope that one of those takes the top spot.

As far as the top picks for the juried prizes, I’m fairly pleased. Still, I’d like to take a crack at this. Some of the pieces they chose I haven’t had the chance to see yet. I mean seeing 1,500 pieces of Art in three weeks is pretty impossible, nevermind seeing them in the first week and a half! So, here are my winners if I were a juror and had to pick right now.

2-Dimensional: City As Muse by Rick Beerhorst at the UICA.

I’ve always been a fan of Rick Beerhorst’s ArtPrize entries and the folk art feel they’ve got, but this year, not only is it fantastic, it’s huge. This painting pays homage to Grand Rapids in the best way possible. It takes you over as soon as you walk into the room and it keeps its hold on you long after you leave.

3-Dimensional: The Delicacy of Place by Kate Gesel at the Calvin College 106 Gallery

A piece of Art doesn’t have to be big to make a big impact. It doesn’t have to be in a big exhibition center to deserve recognition. This thing is STUNNING. You need to go see it. Seriously, if it wasn’t 11 pm I’d tell you to go right now. The way she has printed these delicate scenes on tissue thin paper takes a huge amount of skill. The frames come out from the wall so when the slightest breeze blows through, the paper, which is not attached on the sides or bottom, floats out like a sheer curtain in front of an open window. It’s just plain lovely.

Installation: Intersections by Anila Quayyum Agha at the Grand Rapids Art Museum

There is a reason this piece was picked by both the jurors AND the public vote as a finalist. When you walk into this installation at the GRAM you are surrounded by light. The wooden box in the center is cut with an intricate pattern that fills the gallery. It’ll be hard to beat for sure.

Time Based: Urban Tumbleweed by Nathan Lareau at Cathedral Square

When I saw this video, I actually chuckled. The tumbleweed itself is pretty cool, and it makes some amazing sounds in the video. Not only that, it just looks cool rolling down sidewalks and through parking lots and the woods. It’s fun. Sometimes that’s all you need.

Venue: Western Michigan University

This is not one of the big exhibition centers. It’s not one of those eclectic nomadic venues like Site:LAB. Western Michigan has one floor of Art. It’s a big open space on their fifth floor and there is a huge variety of work in there. Every medium, every dimension, installation and time based pieces. They’ve got it all and it’s all pretty good.

Overall: Bower by Tim Lowly at the Grand Rapids Art Museum (pictured with this post)

This painting stuck with me. I had the hardest time deciding what to choose for this, but ultimately it had to be this one. It has this kind of sacred peaceful aura about it. It’s large but not over the top, muted and soft. It’s quiet. It’s the kind of painting that affects you even if you don’t understand why. And it’s exactly the kind of thing that should be winning awards at ArtPrize.

Art In the City

Last weekend I went to a printmaking conference in Detroit. As you may know, Detroit has had some difficulty in recent years. At one point, it even seemed like they would have to start selling off part of the collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Driving into the city, that was the version of Detroit we saw. It was the middle of the day in downtown Detroit and the streets were EMPTY. But then something happened. On Friday and Saturday night, there was an event happening. Not a sporting event (which sometimes seems like the only reason people go to Detroit) but an Art event called Dlectricity. All along the Woodward corridor, galleries were open and public spaces were transformed using light and video installations. And there were people. Lots and lots of people, all over Detroit.

In the same way, the ArtPrize competition has revitalized Grand Rapids. This city has gone from stagnant to spectacular. Grand Rapids has actually become one of the only cities in the Midwest to show economic growth in the midst of whatever recession thing we’ve got going on at the moment. And this is because of Art!

I think Art is this great connector. We all have this ability to share a sense of awe and wonder. When you see a video projected on the front of a museum, with music blaring and people in the streets, watching and dancing and exploring, how can you not feel excited?! When an entire city becomes an Art gallery for 3 weeks, and not only do people come look at it, but they participate in it and talk about it, how can you argue that Art has become irrelevant? Even the police station has Art in the windows!

Here in Grand Rapids, as we start deciding winners, let’s go to venues out of our way. Let’s have conversations with strangers about what we like and where to find it. Let’s walk laps around this place and vote for our favorite pieces. Let’s appreciate the way this brings us together and allows our cities to grow.

(Pictured is Intersections by Anila Quayyum Agha, currently on display for ArtPrize at the Grand Rapids Art Museum.)

Testing the Waters of ArtPrize 2014

I don’t know if anyone else here in Grand Rapids feels this way, but ArtPrize feel a little different to me this year. It’s almost as if everything shifted when they announced that this year, for the first time, the juried award would be equal to the voted award. If I’m being perfectly honest, I’m a little bit excited. I now have an expectation that the amount of high quality Art on display will have grown tremendously, and as such will receive much more attention than in previous years.

On the other hand, ArtPrize was originally conceived purely as an open Art competition that relies entirely on public vote. Have we lost confidence in our visitors and their ability to choose the best possible work? I think in some ways we have. For the past five years, the ArtPrize top 10 has been comprised mostly of gimmicky (sometimes even kitschy) artwork that has been displayed in easily accessible public or outdoor spaces located right in the center of the city. Questions have been raised on quality and fairness of location. I myself have serious doubts as to whether or not visitors understand the responsibility that comes with handing out such a large monetary prize.

Still, despite the problems, generally the winners of ArtPrize have been quality pieces of work. (I will note that the winners of the voted prize tend to exclude more conceptual or abstract work in favor of large, highly technical pieces.) I do hope, as ArtPrize continues to grow and change over the years, that we are able to open ourselves up to all kinds of Art, not just relying on the jurors to expand our horizons for us.

As ArtPrize gets started, I really want to encourage those of you in the Grand Rapids area to really consider what pieces you’re voting for. Do they make you think? Do they push you to consider new ideas and possibilities? Do they deserve to win $200,000? Take your time! Look around, not only in exhibition centers but the small shops in the area. Only have a weekend? Plan ahead. Use your time wisely and make your votes count. Talk to the artists if you have the opportunity to do so. Be ready to learn.

If not sure where to start, here are some tips from someone with experience.  If you’re looking for places you can hit in one day, hit up the exhibition centers downtown like the Grand Rapids Art Museum and then wander through the small shops and venues in the surrounding area. If you want whimsey, a lot of the outdoor spaces like the Grand River, Ah-Nab-Awen Park and the area around the Public Museum tend to have some fun things you can interact with. If you want a good variety, DeVos place and the Women’s City Club typically show a lot of different sizes and mediums so you can see a very good mix of Art. For music lovers, St. Cecilia’s has all of the musical entries available to listen to in their basement. And finally, if you’re very adventurous and looking for something to push you out of your comfort zone, check out places like Kendall College of Art and Design, SiTE:LAB, The Meijer Gardens and the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, all places that show site specific installations and pieces that push boundaries.

(Image is detail of Walking On Water by Makoto Fujimura, which is on display for ArtPrize 2014 at The Acton Institute.)

Love, Hate, ArtPrize, and the Open Art Competition

It has been my privilege these past few years to live in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For those of you that aren’t familiar with this lovely city, Grand Rapids is home to the largest public Art competition in the world, ArtPrize. This competition is now in its 6th year and it’s starting this week on Wednesday, September 24. Because of this, I will be attempting to write three times a week for the next three and a half weeks. Yikes.

Since many of you may not live in or near Grand Rapids, here is your introduction. ArtPrize was started in Grand Rapids in 2009 as the brainchild of Rick DeVos. The premise was simple. Anyone can enter as long as you pay the entry fee and connect with a venue. Any business or organization in the general downtown area can sign up to be a venue and display Art. Anyone that attends can sign up to vote for a winner. 4th-10th place winners got $7,000, 3rd got $50,000, 2nd got $100,000 and 1st got a whopping $250,000, the highest award for any Art competition in the world. That first year, 1,200 pieces of Art took over downtown Grand Rapids. Since then, we have seen entries in the Grand River, on several of the bridges, hanging from the tops of buildings and flying over our public parks. Everyone gets involved, including the police station, the Art museum and several area churches. Rules have been changed and things have been added (there are now TWO $200,000 1st prize awards, one for the public vote and one juried) but one thing that sticks is that people flood the downtown area. Just to see Art.

As an artist myself, this makes me pretty happy. I want people to be educated about Art and interested in the discussions surrounding it. And because of ArtPrize, they are! For three and a half weeks every year, Art is on the news and in the streets. People are being exposed to abstract and realist paintings, huge detailed sculptures, conceptual Art, non-traditional art forms,  performance Art, and they are learning in the process. Children in this city are being surrounded by an atmosphere of creativity. I myself have been an ArtPrize volunteer, an ArtPrize artist, and I even applied for an ArtPrize job once. My messenger bag is actually made out of an ArtPrize banner. I LOVE ArtPrize.

But of course nothing is perfect, and when you have an Art competition where the winner is decided by the public, things don’t always turn out the way one might hope. Some venues display Art that is more gimmick than anything else (giant steampunk pigs, bears made of tires, fire breathing dragons, etc.) and many people vote based on spectacle and shock value. Last year, I was particularly disappointed with the top 10 from the public vote, the best of which was the winner, a 4 panel Art quilt of a lakeshore landscape. Then there’s the other problem – the venue problem. People with only a Saturday to spare stick to large exhibition centers, neglecting the smaller shops and fringe venues that may hold hidden gems. When I was an ArtPrize artist, my venue was on the outskirts with no bus routes going by and oddball hours. I worked hard, but no one came. It’s times like that when I really HATE ArtPrize.

This year, the 6th year, I have high expectations. For the first time, the juried award is the same amount as the public vote award. One of my very favorite artists, Makoto Fujimura, will be here from New York City, displaying his piece and giving a lecture. My school will be displaying the work of graduate students during ArtPrize. Art has already started going up and my anticipation is high. On Wednesday, I will be going to see as much of the Art as possible and making note of the best venues, out of the way places to find great Art, the best pieces for discussion and anything else that this year’s round may inspire. I’m excited to share this crazy thing with all of you.

(Sessilanoid by James Peterson, on display at the Grand Rapids Art Museum during ArtPrize 2013. Photo by E. J. Cobb)