October 11-26, 2019 (6 months and counting!)
We have a new award, and this is a huge – world first huge – announcement, and we are So Excited: Art Gate VR is a virtual reality platform (using 3D goggles & handset, like for VR gaming) for galleries, collectors, and artists to exhibit art. Art Gate will award a six month solo exhibition in virtual reality to one of the finalists in the Newmarket Juried Art Show. This will be a free four-artwork exhibition for 6 months. A larger exhibition can be discussed with the winner if desired.
Great news for artists entering the NJAS – The Town of Newmarket has decided that, as we are a third-party partnership, they will waive the commission!
This will make your work much more affordable.
Peggy and I are very grateful for those who went to bat for us with the Town.
I think that you will be excited to meet our two jurists, Diana Bennett and Brendon McNaughton.
DIANA BENNETT – Artist, Designer, Story Teller.
Diana Bennett, with a U of T Masters degree in Art History is also a former teacher and arts administrator who has worked to establish the role of the arts in Ontario throughout her long and distinguished career. A former senior executive with TVOntario and the Zoo, she has sat on a number of Boards including the University of Toronto Art Museum, the Toronto Arts Council/Foundation, Canada Publishing, the Toronto Stock Exchange, and in 2017 was president of the Ontario Society of Artists. Diana works in both two dimensional and three dimensional works using fabric, thread, wire, glass, mirror, seeds, shellac flakes, stones, bones, photo transfer and resin. Her series and installations are autobiographical. She has been exhibiting over five decades with solo exhibitions in Ontario and Quebec at galleries such as Gallery O (Olga Korper), Baas, Albert White, Kerozene, Engine and Walnut Contemporary, and has works in private and public collections in Canada and the US.
BRENDON McNAUGHTON is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist. He received a B.F.A. with honours from York University and began exhibiting his work in 2010. Since then his sculptures have been presented in major exhibitions at Toronto’s Corkin Gallery, have been shown at OCAD’s Onsite Gallery and the Palazzo Loredan in Venice, Italy. McNaughton’s work has attracted widespread attention, his pieces forming part of both private and public collections.
McNaughton explores how technology is transforming social and economic structures across the globe. To create his marble, bronze and aluminum works, he uses frontier technologies such as 3D printers, carving robots, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. McNaughton’s work marks a transitional moment in history away from the machine-like behaviour of people as conceived by Pop Art. His blending of art and technology aims to establish a cultural identity within the rapid technological evolutions in contemporary times.
Late January update: We are seeking a third jurist, one with experience in curating or teaching photography.
We now have both of our jurists lined up for NJAS 2019 – the first annual Newmarket Juried Art Show!
Both are accomplished professional Ontario artists. One is surprisingly young and heading up like a rocket, and the other has a lengthy career that includes teaching at the same time as creating innovative fabric-based sculptural art. Both have curatorial experience.
Who are they you ask?
Stay tuned – we’ll let you know soon!
I’ve started to make a list of all the elementary schools in Newmarket, and will be contacting them in the new year about the Kids’ Show that we have planned to go with the Juried Art Show.
You may already know that the Kids’ Show will be for students in K-8 in Newmarket schools. It will be held in the Library on Park St.
Interested? Contact us with the special email kto8art@newmarketjuriedartshow.ca
The response to last week’s Facebook campaign to get friends & followers to spread the word about the Show was better than expected! Thanks to everyone!
There were lots of new Likes & Follows on Facebook. More importantly, there were new visitors to the website (https://newmarketjuriedartshow.ca) and new ones signing up to the mailing list. Lots of unfamiliar names, too, which is exciting.
We’ll be sending out an email next week, to test the list.
Should there be an age limit for an art show? No – I don’t mean for the artists, or for who can come to see the art. I mean for the art itself. Most juried art shows require work to be no more than 2 or 3 years old.
I get it – we all want to see what an artist has been up to recently, and we don’t necessarily want to see the same piece over and over again. But I have a number of pieces that have never shown and now are too old to qualify. Mainly that’s because I don’t apply to that many shows, but I would like to be able to try some of them, old as they are.
I think we’ll be trying a blend of these ideas. Perhaps there will be no age limit, but ask artists not to submit works that have shown locally (northern York Region?) before.
As I say – stay tuned! And leave your opinion – you can comment on any post be clicking its title.
We’ve been talking over whether or not to have a theme for the show. Not all shows have a theme, probably most don’t. But I* have found that having a theme focuses my thoughts, spurs new work and even brings a new understanding of older work. Since this is the first annual Newmarket Juried Art Show, we’re thinking of a theme having to do with newness – new media or techniques, new work, older work that hasn’t shown, new ideas (or old ones that need to go to make way for new ones)…
Starting next year (2020) we hope to be in sync with Culture Days, and will be borrowing their theme each year.
Stay tuned. Early days, and much still up in the air.
You can leave your opinion – comment on any post be clicking its title.
We’ve started talks on having a concurrent show for Newmarket Elementary School students. The works shown would be selected by the schools.
Our first annual show will be in October of 2019.
Going forward, we hope to be in sync with Ontario’s Culture Days, which take place at the end of September.