Where our 2023 entries came from
Save the dates!
The show runs at Newmarket’s Old Town Hall from April 18 to April 29. Check the website for updates, since the Town rents out the space occasionally for private functions (which gives the art a captive audience).
The Opening Reception – our Gala – will be April 20, 7:00 to 9:30. It is free, including snacks & refreshments, and open to all. The Awards, totalling around $1000, will be announced that evening.
The Art Is In!
The deadline just passed, and we have submissions from 110 Ontario artists – a record, by far! We’re happy!
The artists sent in close to 300 pieces of work – painting, sculpture, photography, fibre and pottery/ceramics and more.
Geographically, the artists are from about 40 different communities.
Now – on to the jurying – April 5! Results will be sent out soon after
Meet our Jury Panel
We think that you will be excited to meet our 2023 jurists, Krys Carruthers, Gavin Gunter and Jeff Nye
Krys Carruthers is a long-time high school visual arts teacher, Visual Arts Department Head, Arts Huron coordinator and Regional Chair for Visual Arts in the York Region Board of Education. She has been a member of the Newmarket Group of Artists for many years. Her art practice includes painting, encaustic, dry transfer and mixed media techniques, and metalwork/jewellery. She can be found on Instagram @six.teenfoxes
Jeff Nye is a Canadian artist, writer, teacher, and curator. Jeff has a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with Distinction from Concordia University in Montreal (1998) and a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Regina (2007). His paintings and multimedia installations have been exhibited in public galleries across the country. He has curated exhibitions for the Mackenzie Art Gallery, Dunlop Art Gallery, and Last Mountain Lake Cultural Centre. He has also instructed studio art, exhibition design, and art history classes at First Nations University of Canada, University of Regina, and Georgian College.
Jeff has received several distinctions and awards for his work, including grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Gavin Gunter is a self-taught abstract-expressionist painter and former art collector who has exhibited internationally and whose artwork is included in prominent private and corporate collections. A Jamaican by birth, he is also a trained geologist and a former President of the Geological Society of Jamaica. He has a passion for social justice and his Christian faith. Since 2018, he has principally engaged in photography, concentrating on a wide variety of themes but principally concerned with the positive portrayal of Black and racialized peoples. He currently serves as a volunteer photographer for the Newmarket African Caribbean Canadian Association (NACCA).
New dates for 2023
Originally we wanted NJAS to be a Spring show. Unfortunately, the Old Town Hall could not accommodate us then, and we had our first show in the Fall of 2019.
All that changes in 2023!
After checking in with our artists and supporters, and verifying with the Old Town Hall, we decided to move to the Spring.
Our new dates will be:
- ENTRIES ARE BEING ACCEPTED NOW – as of Jan 8
- Due Date: 5 p.m. Saturday, March 25, 2023 at 5pm
- Dropoff: Sunday April 16, 11 am to 3 pm
- Show: April 18 to April 29 at the Gallery; much longer online
- Reception: April 20, 7 to 9:30 pm, live in the OTH
- Pickup: Sunday April 30, 11 am to 3 pm
Our 2022 Award Winners
| Jurists’ Choice: David Paolini Not That I Remember But That I Am Memory (Sponsor: Wasim Jarrah) |
| Painting/Drawing: Heather Smiley Manitoulin Morning (Sponsor: Jackie Playter) |
| Painting/Drawing: Sophie Yeh-Chau Hanging On (Sponsor: Jackie Playter) |
| 3D (Sculpture, ceramics, pottery) Cathy Harris: Dragonfly Resting (Sponsor: Bike Sports) |
| Photography: Bret Culp Jack’s Video Sports Bar (Sponsor: Fuse Chamber) |
| Fibre Arts: Bailey Anderson Tied Up In Knots (Sponsor: Bob & Barb Kwapis) |
| Mixed Media: Kate Greenway A Copse (Sponsor: Dr T Hunter) |
| Honourable Mentions: Walter Bauer One Bad Apple (Sponsor: Chris Ballard) |
| Joanne Toth Sterling (Sponsor: Stirred Interiors) |
| Denise Brooker Old Times (Sponsor: Robins IDA) |
| Cathy Harris Covid Relief (Sponsor: Robins IDA) |
Gallery Hours
The show runs to Sept 24. Regular Hours Monday to Wednesday: 8:30 – 4:30
Thursday to Saturday: 8:30 – 8:00
Sunday: 11:00 to 5:00
2022 Poster!
Here’s the main poster for the 2022 show! It will be hanging by the reception area as you walk in to the Old Town Hall. To download a copy, click here.
The artist galleries will be posted later in September, after the Reception and maybe after the Show itself.
2022 Entries Are All In
The deadline for entering the 2022 NJAS have passed.
If you have sent your entry and need a reminder of how to pay, please click here.
Many thanks to the 54 artists who entered this year. We are very excited to see the artwork you sent us (it’s just a few minutes past the deadline, so we haven’t looked yet!)
Jurying is set for the 23rd. See the previous post to meet the jurists. Notifications will be sent within a few days after that. Awards will be announced at the Gala, September 15.
As well, we have hired the inestimable Jeff Nye (find him here) to help us curate and hang the show.
Textile Art? Fibre Art? Material? Fabric?
(June 2022 update)
Pretty much forever, the world was told: “Women can’t paint.” Or “Shouldn’t”. Or some other excuse to keep them on the model’s side of the room.
Of course, with lots of hard work and pushing back by female artists and feminists, barriers fell, and women are fully accepted as artists and even leaders in all media.
Or are they?
Even now, I believe, some media are seen as secondary, lesser, not quite art.
As “women’s art”.
Take fiber arts, fabric arts, textiles, for example.
It’s a rare thing for a gallery or museum to dedicate a showing to a fiber artist, and I have long thought that that is due to textile making being seen as a female means of expression, decorative, suited only for utility in the home. “The artificial divide between fine art and textiles is a gendered issue” according to Amber Butchart, writing for Frieze.com (14 Nov 2018)
I’m not saying that textile work such as weaving, dying and quilting, isn’t currently predominantly done by women. I’m saying that it doesn’t matter: these forms are (or can be) art, just as much as paint on canvas is (or can be) art.
As fiber artist Georgianne Holland says in their blog post: “…I can stand with some of my favorite artists who broke free of traditional and perhaps limiting art world boxes and now represent innovation in the fiber and textile arts…” (Wednesday, June 25, 2014)
As Co-Directors of the Newmarket Juried Art Show, we celebrate the reclamation of the textile arts by women who put their work out in the world as art. From our beginnings in 2019, we have backed that celebration by offering a Medium Award for Textile Arts.
Hope to hear from you soon – August 15, 2022 Deadline approaches!
Dave and Peggy