National Show Acceptance

Hot off the presses. I received word yesterday I have a piece that has been accepted into a national juried show. For those who don’t know, a juried show is an exhibition that is juried or “judged” by an artist or critic of acclaim to be exhibited. A national show implies that the venue was accepting work from throughout the country for jurying, thus receiving higher quality work for the exhibition. Thus far I have been in 5 (this will be my 6^th). I’ve only been exhibiting my work for 4 years so I feel quite blessed for the reception it is receiving. 

I feel this may be in part due to the art world’s shift into the period referred to as “post-contemporary.” To quote Wikipedia:

“Following the legacy of Modernism, Post-Modernism and Contemporary art follow the tradition of Deconstruction and questioning, while Post Contemporary emphasizes generating new, constructive hypotheses. However, modeled after the Scientific Method, both modes are inter-dependent as the question|answer cannot exist without each other. Thus, Post-Contemporary views the history of the humanities as branching and pluralist, rather than a linear path of development. Consequently, PoCo has chosen a forking path, builds upon knowledge from all eras, and values quality, sublimnity, and empathy above novelty. PoCo emphasizes empathy for all, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or creed.”

The short of it means that due to post-contemporary’s friendliness to more historical methods of creation and devaluing of novelty, my work, which is more realist in nature, is better received than it would’ve been in years before. Many abstract painters believe this could mean an end to their style of working, while on the contrary, post-contemporary is excepting of all past forms of creation which still includes, abstract expressionism, modern, post-modern, etc. 

The piece accepted into the show “Greatest Light” though on the darker side of the value scale is meant to be hopeful. It illustrates that our greatest light is usually found during darkness or while we’re in the “valley.” It will be exhibited October 4^th– 24^th The Shwa National Juried Exhibition at the Emerge Gallery and Arts Center in Greenville, North Carolina.