Exhibits & Events

There were more than 800 works of art entered into this year’s competition fora place in the International Juried Exhibition at the Center for Contemporary Art.I selected 57 works of art. My decisions were based upon four important andnecessary characteristics: visual interest; imagination/vision; seriousness ofpurpose; and technical prowess.

While the decisions made were specific to each work, there are themes that runthrough the exhibition. These include images of the natural world, crowds,portraits, imaginary and real journeys, calls to justice, and abstractioncompositions that range from expressionist to geometric. The wide range ofinterests and imagination make this show both unpredictable and remarkablyfull-bodied.

Jurying an exhibition from slides is always a daunting task. My laptop’s screensmooths out and equalizes video, painting, sculpture, textiles, drawings,photographs, prints, and mixed media—the result is a mediated view ofindividually crafted textures and human touch. Looking at my screen, I reimaginethese images as actual objects of varying sizes and dimensions and hope that thecolor I see is an accurate capture of the original. The process is one of reclamationand reimagining. Having confessed my discomfort with the process, I nonethelessstand by my choices for inclusion in The Center for Contemporary Art’sInternational Juried Exhibition.

Congratulations to all the artists whose work is on view in this year’s show—andcongratulations to the artists who won first, second and third place awards.