Friday, June 1, 2007

Art Competitions

I've been told by a dealer from Texas and by more than one gallery that my resume should have awarded art competitions on it. So let's see, we have to show a growing exhibition list, reviews and publications, the right grants and fellowships, membership in professional societies, who's collected you, and now art comps. Sheesh!

I see here young man, that you've showed all over the country and have a well-developed series of art. But you didn't enter, and win, the Western Virginia art competition to paint the indigenous Singing Fica Bush. Hmm, too bad.

Not that I think the art competitions are of ultimate importance. I do give them a little bit of effort. So I was wondering if any of you have come across quality competitions. Most of the ones I find take a whole bunch of time to find out they're a scam.

I'll start. Here are some sources I wanted to share.
ArtDeadline It's a great list of grants, residencies, art comps, etc.

And some competitions that look good.
Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition
Art Kudos International Juried Competition

5 comments:

Jax CAL said...

Sorry but I don't know of any competitions. I can't imagine entering one either. Sorry if I sound a bit pissy, but it's just all so ridiculous to me. It's like they are collecting baseball cards or something and not art.

Trying to run the stats on their favorite players before forking over cash for a collectible. What happened to having a visceral reaction to the work and wanting to help support the talents of that person so that they will make more work?

James said...

Sheeeit.

My resume has no comps on it. I do have grants and awards, but they're mainly academic in nature.

Your personal cred depends more on how widely exhibited you are. A busy exhibition record (including international shows) outweighs regional comps, I'd bet.

Get yourself a Masters from a reputable school and it outweighs art comps, too, depending on who's looking.

I wouldn't sweat it too much.

I do recommend joining CAA or some serious academic art association. If you're a painter, then try annually to get into the New American Painters mag.

But beyond that, just try your best to get exhibited everywhere you can. That'll work better than comps.

Byron said...

Once again Zax, sorry if I sound pissy on that last comment.

Missed you last weekend. Wish you could have seen the show? Oh well.

We'll have to meet some other time.

everyone have a good weekend. I'm installing a show in Atlanta this weekend. Please wish me luck as I have no idea where I'm going?

Should be interesting. I'm going to check out some galleries so hopefully I'll be able to put in a report here.

peace...

Anonymous said...

No worries Byron. I'm grounded in my art making and I choose to play their art biz game. My ultimate goals as an artist are dragging me smack-dab through it. So I've asked for it when a dealer starts talking about my art as a product and me as a rookie ball-player. Sorry I missed you over the weekend, but we'll catch up. Good luck in Atlanta.

Jaime is that the College Art Association? I tried to send you a message through Saatchi and couldn't get it to work. Maybe 'cause the Stuart/Your Gallery thing.

James said...

Zac:

Yes, the CAA I refer to is the College Art Association. Really it's best for finding college-level teaching positions, but it is also a swell resource for critical articles about contemporary art and art history. They also publish perhaps the most literate journal about art called, simply, Art Journal. Membership in the CAA (it's 50 bucks a year) gets you a subscription to Art Journal as well. Plus their annual conference is a good place to go for what's what and who's who in the US art world. It's a pressure cooker if you go there to interview (many interviews take place in conference hotel rooms) but there are panel discussions, poster sessions, and lectures about the big issues.

It's worth a look.

And as for sending me a message via Saatchi, well, I don't check it much so maybe your message is there and I just haven't seen it yet.