(e)merge art fair
Gallery and Artist
applications online
Click here
Deadline: May 2, 2011
(e)merge, a new, vetted art fair, to feature galleries that promote emerging art and an exhibition platform for unrepresented artists, is now accepting applications.
To download applications/prospectus: www.emergeartfair.com
Deadline: Monday, May 2, 2011.
The inaugural (e)merge art fair will take place September 22–25, 2011, at the Capitol Skyline Hotel in Washington, DC, within blocks of the National Mall, home of internationally renowned cultural institutions including the National Gallery of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and many Smithsonian museums.
(e)merge draws inspiration from the pioneering efforts of the Gramercy Hotel Fair, the Times Square Show, and Ritz Hotel Exhibition, which introduced the careers of young galleries and artists to established and new collector audiences alike.
Currently there is a resurgence of appetite for emerging art. Liz Christensen, curator of the Deutsche Bank Collection, during an Armory-sponsored panel discussion about corporate collections, emphasized that the focus of the Bank’s collection is on emerging artists. Art advisor Todd Levin recently stated that the Gramercy Hotel Fair was “a real place for discoveries.” In the same article on Artinfo.com Sarah Douglas and Andrew M. Goldstein asserted that “In order to compete in an increasingly saturated market, art fairs have to deliver their dealer clients the most bang for the buck, and that can mean delivering new clients, especially ones from emerging markets.”
The international art world is now beginning to focus attention on the recent groundswell of emerging art communities in DC, at a momentous time in the capital city’s history. At present, the DC region comprises many of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the U.S. and ranks at the top of the nation’s real estate market. With abundant job opportunities and cultural attractions, DC is home to a rapidly expanding demographic of young professionals, and a highly educated populace, who provide a strong target audience for art events and are positioned to form a strong new segment of the emerging art market. “In the past decade,” Washington Post culture critic Philip Kennicott recently wrote, “Washington has grown up, become more urban in its thinking, more cosmopolitan in its taste, more daring and professional in its local arts scene.”
(e)merge will feature international galleries and nonprofits along with artist, curator and collector panel discussions, tours, and performances. Artists currently without gallery representation that are selected by the Committee will have the opportunity to exhibit their vetted works at no charge throughout the hotel and its grounds.
Committee Members include:
• Matthew Higgs, Director/Chief Curator, White Columns, New York, NY
• Kristen Hileman, Curator, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
• Mera Rubell, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL and Washington, DC
• Manuel de Santaren, collector, Boston, MA and Washington, DC
• Nico Vascellari, artist, New York, NY and Vittorio Veneto, Italy
• Yvonne Force Villareal, co-founder Art Production Fund, New York, NY
(list in formation, March 2011)
“I’ll be looking for artists’ work that presents a unique, thoughtfully-developed and provocative vision,” said Kristen Hileman, Curator at the Baltimore Museum of Art. “While the strongest artistic voices do respond to today’s culture, work that distinguishes itself cannot be pigeonholed into trends of the moment, rather it leads us to see the world in new ways. That’s what I look forward to viewing and championing in the jurying process.”
Mapping the World of Emerging Art
When visiting the Web site, artists, gallerists, curators, arts professionals, or collectors who work with or support emerging art, can identify their city to create a marker on the world map. The populated map will be on view online and at the Fair. A picture of the global community of emerging art will be created as colleagues from Baltimore to Brasilia to Beijing put themselves on the map.
The (e)merge art fair is organized by Helen Allen, founder and former director of PULSE Contemporary Art Fair, Leigh Conner and Jamie Smith, co-founders of Conner Contemporary in Washington, DC.
(e)merge (office address)
1358 Florida Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20002
info [at] emergeartfair.com
www.emergeartfair.com