Application Workshop Powerpoint - Contemporary Art Museum St

Great Rivers Biennial Applica1on Walkthrough April 4, 2015 Best Prac1ce: A Conversa1on with Vesna Jovanovic Presented by MAPS Saturday, April 11 at 1:00pm Regional Arts Commission 6128 Delmar Blvd At this program, Chicago ar0st Vesna Jovanovic will share images of her work and talk about her ar0s0c process, followed by a conversa0on about her professional prac0ces promo0ng her work, applying for residencies, working with gallerists, and ge>ng exposure outside of her hometown. Vesna Jovanovic is a Chicago-­‐based visual ar0st who specializes in conceptualiza0ons of the human body, working in ink, graphite, watercolor, ceramics, and photography. She is a recipient of several grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the City of Chicago, and her exhibi0on record includes solo shows at Packer Schopf Gallery and the University of Chicago Gordon Center for Integra0ve Science. In 2016 she will be the subject of solo exhibi0ons at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts (DCCA) and the Metro Gallery at Reno City Hall, Reno, NV. Great Rivers Biennial Exhibi1on & Award •  Purpose of Program •  Applicant Qualifications •  Review Process: What happens after you hit “Send” •  Selec0on Criteria: What are panelists looking for? Thinking about? •  Application Components & Work Samples Purpose of GRB Exhibi0on & Award •  Great Rivers Biennial is a collabora0ve exhibi0on program presented by CAM and Gateway Founda0on. •  This initia0ve iden0fies talented emerging and mid-­‐career ar0sts working in the greater St. Louis metro area, provides them with financial assistance, and elevates their profile across the Midwest and na0onal arts communi0es. •  Winners will receive a grant of $20,000 and will be featured in the Great Rivers Biennial 2016 exhibi0on at CAM Applica0on Timeline Applica1on deadline •  May 4, 2015, midnight Ten semi-­‐finalists chosen •  June 9, 2015 Studio visits •  June 21–23, 2015 Winners announced •  June 29, 2015 Exhibi1on on view •  May 6–August 7, 2016 Eligibility • 
Ar0st must currently reside in the metro area, including St. Louis City and the coun0es of St. Louis, Jefferson and St. Charles in Missouri, or St. Clair and Madison in Illinois. • 
Ar0st may be a degree-­‐seeking graduate student in his or her final year of study. • 
Ar0st must have lived in the St. Louis metro area (six coun0es) for at least one year prior to the applica0on deadline (May 4, 2015). • 
Ar1st must con1nue to reside in the St. Louis metro area during the designated planning, produc1on, and exhibi1on period (July 2015–August 2016). • 
Ar0st must be available for studio visits with the jurors June 21–23, 2015, 9:00 am–7:00 pm. Alterna0ve spaces may be arranged if ar0st does not have a studio. The jurors will choose ten semi-­‐finalists who will receive these visits. Visits must be in-­‐person, not by phone or video. • 
Artist’s work must fall within the areas of drawing, film and video, installa0on, mixed media, pain0ng, photography, printmaking, sculpture • 
Ar0st may not have previously exhibited as part of the Great Rivers Biennial. Review Process •  Aier May 4 deadline has passed, applica0ons are reviewed for eligibility and completeness. Incomplete applica0ons will not be judged. •  Between 150-­‐200 applica0ons an0cipated. •  Jurors will review work samples and exhibi0on proposals. CAM staff is NOT a part of this process. •  Work samples and applica0on materials are reviewed and rated electronically. •  Jurors will select ten semi-­‐finalists for studio visits. •  Jurors convene again following studio visits to select winners. Jurors are no longer part of the process; CAM curator works closely with ar0sts to develop museum exhibi0ons. 2014 Great Rivers Biennial Winners Brandon Anschultz Anschultz’s work emphasizes the tac0le quali0es of paint, demonstra0ng the ability of the medium to go beyond its conven0onal two-­‐dimensional use. Titled Suddenly Last Summer, Anschultz’s project at CAM uses the 1958 Tennessee Williams play and 1959 film of the same name as a jumping-­‐off point. In his installa0on, layered pain0ngs, sculptures, and objects such as mirrors, pillars, and lintels evoke set design, specifically the garden se>ng of Suddenly Last Summer, which serves as the loca0on for some the most drama0c exchanges in the work as well as a tangible example of the play’s themes of repressed desire and the unforgiving reality of aging. hop://anschultz.com/ 2014 Great Rivers Biennial Winners Carlie Trosclair Inspired by the natural breakdown of architectural structures, Carlie Trosclair’s installa0ons highlight buildings as ever-­‐changing organisms that reveal paoerns of beauty over 0me. Through site-­‐
specific interven0ons in abandoned spaces, Trosclair uses pliable and decora0ve materials, such as fabric and wallpaper, to create new topographies and narra0ves. Exfolia0on, her project at CAM, simulates this type of evolu0onary breakdown, with layers of architectural skin expanding across the museum walls. Consis0ng of salvaged two-­‐by-­‐fours, wallpaper, and drywall, the ostensibly deteriora0ng composi0on transforms the space, crea0ng new rela0onships between surface, interior, and structural support. hop://carlietrosclair.com/ 2014 Great Rivers Biennial Winners Cayce Zavaglia Originally trained as a painter, Cayce Zavaglia also works in embroidery, blending colors and establishing tonali0es that resemble the techniques of classical oil pain0ng. Recto │Verso, her project at CAM, features hand-­‐embroidered portraits alongside a related series of small gouache and large-­‐scale acrylic pain0ngs. The pain0ngs portray the verso, or reverse, side of the embroidery, revealing a portrait of loose ends, knots, and chaos corresponding to—but psychologically different from—the me0culously sewn front image. In the rich history of tapestry, the verso has tradi0onally been hidden from the viewer; Zavaglia exposes this concealed otherness, addressing the divergence between our presented and private selves. hop://www.caycezavaglia.com/ Previous Winners 2012 2010 David Johnson’s (b. 1982, Aus0n, TX) architecturally inspired photographs consider the dynamic between the built environment and its inhabitants, seeking out unexpected interplays of light, color, and form in the public and private spheres. Martin Brief’s drawings explore the way that language, thought, and informa0on relate to contemporary culture. His process of obscuring and renewing textual data presents us with new ways of experiencing networks of informa0on. Asma Kazmi (b. 1978, Quetta, Pakistan) works across various media to connect people, media, and objects. Her project, 0tled Between Word and Image, centers on the ar0st’s collabora0on with three individuals taking part in an adult literacy program in St. Louis. Sarah Frost creates large-­‐scale installa0ons and sculptures using materials as diverse as computer keyboards, Bundt pans, and toilet-­‐seat covers. Mel Trad (b. 1987) reworks exis0ng and found materials — such as wood, steel, slate, and metal — to unpredictable yet inven0ve ends. Her exhibi0on expands her spa0al inves0ga0ons into matter, surface, and scale in a series of works that engage modernist and minimalist sculptural prac0ce of the twen0eth and twenty-­‐first centuries. The influence of folk art and na0ve American ar0facts often appears in Cameron Fuller’s whimsical, imagina0ve, and, at 0mes ephemeral artwork. Through his playful and fanciful imagery, fuller evokes the uncanny presenta0on of natural and cultural histories in his new, immersive environment at the Contemporary. 2015 Jurors •  Valerie Cassel Oliver is the Senior Curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. In 2014 she opened a major traveling survey of drawings by Houston-­‐based and interna0onally recognized ar0st Trenton Doyle Hancock en0tled Skin and Bones, 20 Years of Drawing. In 2012 she mounted the project Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, currently touring through 2015. In 2000 she was one of six curators selected to organize the Biennial for the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. •  Paul Pfeiffer is a sculptor, photographer, and video ar0st who lives and works in New York City. Several of Pfeiffer’s sculptures include eerie, computer-­‐generated re-­‐crea0ons of props from Hollywood thrillers and miniature dioramas of sets from such films as The Exorcist and The Amityville Horror. His work is represented in numerous collec0ons, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; and Broad Contemporary Art Museum, Santa Monica, California. In 2003 a traveling retrospec0ve of his work was organized by the Massachuseos Ins0tute of Technology’s List Visual Arts Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. •  Anne Ellegood is the Senior Curator at the Hammer Museum. Prior to joining the Hammer, Ellegood was Curator of Contemporary Art at the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, from 2005 to 2009. She has also served as the New York-­‐based curator for Peter Norton’s collec1on of over 2400 works of interna0onal contemporary art and as Associate Curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. Recently, she has curated the exhibi0ons Take It or Leave It: Ins>tu>on, Image, Ideology (2014), co-­‐organized with Johanna Burton, which explored the overlapping strategies of appropria0on and ins0tu0onal cri0que in American art; the Hammer Invita0onal All of this and nothing (2011); and the Hammer’s first biennial of Los Angeles-­‐based ar0sts, Made in L.A. 2012, which included the work of 60 ar0sts working in a wide range of mediums. Ellegood was selected by the Australian Council for the Arts to curate Sydney-­‐based ar0st Hany Armanious’s 2011 Venice Biennale exhibi0on, and she is currently working on exhibi0ons of the work of Kevin Beasley and John Ouoerbridge as well as the first North American retrospec0ve of the work of Jimmie Durham, scheduled to open at the Hammer in 2017. Selec1on Criteria: What Are They Looking For? •  Clear sense of vision; an ar0s0c “signature” •  Work that is engaged in a larger art world conversa0on; work that shows an awareness of what is happening in contemporary art on a global scale •  Work that shows an intellectual approach; that is thoughxul; work that has a conceptual root; that has a contextual meaning •  Overall Professionalism of Applica0on •  High Quality Images •  Clear Wri0ng with Good Edi0ng •  Thorough Resume or C.V. •  Proposal that is specific to this opportunity Applica1on Requirement #1: •  Artist Statement What is an Artist Statement? •  Your ar0st statement is a brief descrip0on of your work that provides the reader with informa0on about your sources, ideas, process, and inspira0on. •  2-­‐3 paragraphs (500 words max) •  Informs the viewer about the work, but doesn’t need to explain the work. •  Supports the work, but doesn’t need to replicate the work •  Consider upda0ng your ar0st statement every 0me you complete a new, singular body of work Questions to start the writing process: •  What might viewers want to know about your work that they can’t get just from looking? •  Where does your inspira0on come from? A par0cular part of your background, iden0ty, or biography? Something historical, or from pop culture? Or from nature? •  What about your process, either crea0ve or construc0ve, might your viewer find interes0ng? •  What might be meaningful about the materials that you work with? •  Where does this current body of work fit in with your overall development as an ar0st? Sample Artist Statement: Allyson Strafella I began using a typewriter for its obvious function- to record my
thoughts and ideas. Communicating is a crucial yet constant struggle
for me. The more I typed, the more the letters and words on the pages
began to take on a new function, a new language.
My discovery of this new language created with my typewriter and
paper was one made up of patterns and grids formed by punctuation
marks: commas, colons, apostrophes, and brackets. It was as if the
typewriter was experiencing a breakdown, and this breakdown was my
breakthrough. I had discovered a new way to communicate. There is an
endless source of information that can be created through a limited use
of materials: paper and a typewriter. I became, and am still, intrigued by
this process.
-Allyson Strafella (Taken from The Artist’s Guide by Jackie Battenfield)
Allyson Strafella truncated form, 2007 typed colons on paper, 18 1⁄2" 11 1⁄2" Allyson Strafella airfoil, 2005 typed colons transferred from blue transfer paper, 5 3⁄4" x 4 3⁄4 A few basic writing tips: •  Show don’t tell. •  Active voice, not passive voice. •  Write about yourself and your work, not what the viewer should feel or think. •  Avoid defensive language. •  Keep it accessible to an average reader. Avoid technical terms or art jargon. •  Spelling and Grammar Check! Have a friend proofread for clarity. Applica1on Requirement #2: •  Submit an exhibi0on proposal that outlines what you intend to create and exhibit in the 2016 Great Rivers Biennial exhibi0on. 500 words max. Exhibi1on Proposal: Concept Your exhibi0on proposal is EXTREMELY important, and should include: •  Basic descrip0on of the project (“elevator speech”) •  What will the viewer experience be like? •  How is the project specific to CAM/Great Rivers Biennial? •  How does it contribute to the global contemporary art conversa0on? •  How does this project reflect your “signature” as an ar0st? •  What would the project 0meline be? (July 2015-­‐May 2016)? •  Project Budget (very basic, but reflec0ve of award amount) •  Describe how the project would spur the crea0on of new work Exhibi1on Proposal: Wri1ng Prompts •  “If included in the 2016 Great Rivers Biennial, I would….” •  What are you interested in as an ar0st? What are you excited about pursuing? •  Where does this project fit within the context of your career? •  How does your work or this project relate to the contemporary art world, other ar0sts, your background/interests/environment, etc? •  Does your project fit the ambi0on indicated by the $20,000 award? (Not over, not dras0cally under?) Does your project fit the CAM gallery space? •  You are encouraged to include a rendering of your proposed project as part of your work samples Exhibi1on Proposal: Logis1cs •  Selected ar0sts will be responsible for all produc0on (supplies, materials, framing, work, shipping, ge>ng work to museum, etc., etc.). •  CAM installa0on crew (registrar, art handlers, etc.) will work closely with them to install in space. •  Walls will already be constructed and ready for install. 9 Uploads: •  1 Artist CV or Resume •  8 Work Sample Images Your Ar1st Resume/CV/Bio: •  Does not have to be long! •  Is not the basis of your getting this, or any other award. •  Should provide context for “where you are” in your art career. •  Should not be too long (no more than three pages) and should include art-­‐career or other relevant info only Your Ar1st Resume/CV/Bio: •  Name/Contact Info •  Educa0on (completed degrees or programs) •  Exhibi0ons •  Title of Show, Venue, City, State (Dates?) •  Solo Exhibitions, followed by Group • 
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Awards/Grants/Residencies Bibliography Collec0ons Public Commissions, Fes0vals, Screenings, Performances Other Professional Ac0vities (freelance, teaching, cura0ng, wri0ng, etc.) •  http://www.collegeart.org/guidelines/resume Uploading Work Samples: •  Upload 8 images (jpg) or video/sound files (mp3, mp4, wav, mov, mpg). •  Images should be 300 dpi and 5 inches wide. •  Label each image with a number and your last and first name. Example: "1_SMITH_JOHN" Cura1ng Your Work Samples: •  Select works that are no more than five years old, if possible. •  “Depth over Breadth”: select works that show your best talents in one area. •  “Clarity of Vision”: curate your work samples to create a cohesive iden0ty for yourself as an ar0st to the panelists. Basic Work Sample Tips: •  QUALITY of work samples is of the utmost importance! •  High-­‐resolu0on image is essen0al. Borrow a camera or find a photographer if necessary. •  Place the artwork on a neutral background (white, black, or grey) •  Even ligh0ng—no glares or dark spots •  Take several images to capture the correct color intensity and black/white contract •  Fill the frame as completely as possible without cropping edges •  Remove distrac0ng elements from the frame, unless they are a part of an installa0on Basic Work Sample Tips: •  For installa0ons, performances, or interac0ve works of art: •  Make sure your work sample image captures the depth of field needed to understand the work. •  You may need to use more than one work sample image to show different angles, or a detail image. •  If the work is interac0ve, you may wish to include an image of viewer par0cipa0on. •  For performances, you may wish to include a brief descrip0on of the performance, and contextualize the moment we are seeing. Image Credits or Short Descrip1ons •  If applicable, write a brief credit line or short descrip0on for each image, video, or sound file uploaded. 1-­‐2 sentence maximum. •  Remember to write the image number first as it corresponds to the descrip0on After the Announcement is Made •  If you receive an award: •  Ar0sts will enter into a professional contract with CAM •  Ar0sts will be assigned to a gallery (A, B, or C) by organizing curator based on their proposal and other projects in the exhibi0on. •  Ar0sts must make themselves available for follow-­‐up studio visits with curator, PR, marke0ng, interviews, images, and related details. •  Ar0sts might be asked to engage in public programming, educa0on workshops, tours, private events, panel discussions, ar0st talks, etc. •  $20,000 award is taxable income! Work with a professional regarding itemizing expenses. GOOD LUCK!