ArtPrize Part 1

Have you heard of ArtPrize?  If not, you need to ask someone....  What is ArtPrize?

"ArtPrize^® is a radically open competition. Open to any artist in the world who can find space. Open to anybody in Grand Rapids, Michigan who wants to create a venue. Open to a vote from anyone who attends."

With top prize being $250,000 and $244,000 in other prizes, why wouldn't you apply?

What is exciting about ArtPrize is that anyone can apply, the public votes for the big prizes, so anyone can win.  Placing the power on the public eye is an incredible opportunity.  What I enjoyed the most was hearing people publicly pronounce what they think of art.  How exciting!  Coming from an artist, I can say that I often consider what I want my artwork to do, but don't often get to hear what it is doing.


Yes, there was certainly a lot of "My Kid Could Do That" but what I also heard was "This is the wrong room for that", "That is just the right height" and, one of my favorites "I'd buy that."  Even if you don't win prizes as an artist entered in the competition, I've heard that there is still a lot of artwork that gets sold, so that is pretty exciting.

I downloaded my iphone app, prepared myself for voting and walked around for about five hours on Saturday.   I know I didn't even come close to seeing it all, but of what I saw, here are some of my favorite art works, venues and collaborations...

This collaboration between Site:Lab and U and M School of Art and Design.  Site:Lab is a non-profit organization that brings together vacant buildings and projects in the Grand Rapids area and students and faculty from U and M School of Art and Design took over this incredible 3 story building and filled it with sculpture, interactive and performative work.  Definitely one of my favorite buildings.

Guiding Light Mission - A message about the attempt to void education in the midwest

Nice collection of handmade work as well as video installation at the Calvin (106) Gallery

The digital print of Mimi Kato is still one of my absolute favorites.  Kato calls the work her "one person theatre" since she performed each character in this twenty foot long print inspired by the style of 16th century Japanese paintinigs.  The painting critically depicts the daily routines of people living in ordinary suburban towns in Japan and is aptly titled "One Ordinary Day of an Ordinary Town" and was showcased at the Kendall College of Art and Design Galleries.

Also being shown in the Kendall Galleries is the work of Johnathon Brilliant who sculpts room size installations from ordinary objects like wooden coffee stir sticks and paper coffee cups.

I also really enjoyed the prints he made from the impression of the wooden sticks run through the press in the printmaking department.

The huge lizards by Juniper Tangpuz installed outside of the Devos Place building.  The chameleons are constructed of corrogated plastic and zip ties and are super fun and colorful.  This one was on of my favorites because he has a craft lamp post coming out of his head.  Talk about trying to blend in with his settings!

Love these little candy-like treats made of reclaimed foam and rubber by Joni Younkins-Herzog.  They look like little bunt cakes!

 

Screwed Rapids Time Lapse from ScrewedArts on Vimeo.

This incredible installed painting on panel by the Screwed Arts Collective at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts was a great way to wrap things up.  I would really love to show at this venue.

If you are interested in applying for ArtPrize I would say take the time to visit Grand Rapids now, get a feel for the land, the venues and opportunities to install art anywhere in the city, vote and apply next year with me!

UICA

Picasso to Koons: The Artist as Jeweler

Jeff Koons

"Rabbit Necklace"

Platinum

2005-2009

If you are going to be in NYC before January 8th, I would check out this show at the Museum of Arts and Design.  Of course, I was there 2 days before it opened, so I did not get to see the show, but I peeked through the doors where it was being put up, and it looks like they have a nice collection of work.

What I love about this show is that ongoing argument about sculpture vs jewelry and here we find jewelry objects that were made by prominent 20th and 21st century artists.  Artists including Jeff Koons, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Jasper John, Anish Kapoor and (the pieces I will be the saddest to miss) Louise Bourgeois will be included in the exhibition.


If you are like me and can not get back to NYC before it closes, at least take a look at the lovely exhibition catalog. 

Museum of Arts and Design Open Studios

Last week I traveled to NYC to visit friends and see some art.  I ended up making my way to the Museum of Arts and Design, looking for installation ideas for my upcoming show in October and looking forward to visiting MAD since I had never been there.  MAD's Open Studios program is a program I became interested in last spring and I was eager to see the type of work that was being made there as well as get a first hand view of the studio space the work was being made in.  The building itself was odd, an unusually small and awkward footprint in the center of town, which created 4 floors of equally odd space.  The studios looked more like offices, but had cases of work made by artists in the program.

While I was visiting, there were two artists from Taiwan working in the space.  Chen Shao-yi who was delicately painting ceramic doll heads with intricate floral patterns that, according to her postcard, she later composed into freaky wall installations...

And Su Su-jen who was weaving bamboo into a lamp-like sculpture.  Su-jen's postcard was proclaiming the benefits of working with bamboo, a renewable material with infinite shaping and manipulation possibilities.   And while she was forming a long oval like shape, her postcard imaged a couch-like shape composed of several formed spheres.

I'm glad I visited and saw the work being produced there.  If I ever end up applying for this program, it's helpful to know what the space looks like.  Here are some images of past work that was made in the open studios.

Patrice Yourdon sews together small wearable objects of nylon mesh then pierces the nylon mesh with dozens of drywall screws.  A process she considers to be both masculine and feminine.

Li-Rong Liao designs and constructs furniture from origami folds.  All those folds must make these pieces pretty strong, right?  The grey piece has glass resting on top of it.  I wonder how much weight can sit on top of it??

It's about time....

Boy Pin-ups...Thanks Carly.

Introduction to Metal Sculpture

I feel lucky to have the opportunity to be teaching Introduction to Metal Sculpture at the Evanston Art Center starting September 12th.  Not only is the EAC the only art center in the Chicago Area to offer workshops and classes in steel fabrication, but they have incredible opportunities for artists and some pretty exciting shows.

The upcoming exhibition, Dimensional Lines: art and dress, is an example of one of the unique and interesting shows.  The Evanston art center invited a group of established local artists to collaborate to create the exhibit, Dimensional Lines, which explores the relationship between art and fashion.  As a maker who is interested in where these two mediums collide, or intersect, I am very excited for this show to open Sept 11.