Indiana University East is accepting art entries October 6-10 for the 2014 Whitewater Valley Annual Art Competition (WVAAC). The competition will begin at 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 18, in Whitewater Hall. Prior to the judging, there will be a juror presentation at 11:30 a.m. in Tom Raper Hall, room 124.
The top ten entries will receive a monetary award. Artists with accepted entries will be notified by Wednesday, October 22.
This year’s competition will be juried by David Klamen, the Chancellor’s Professor of Fine Arts at Indiana University Northwest. Klamen is a contemporary painter whose work grows in conjunction with his interest in literature and philosophy, centralized around visual explorations of the questions, “How do I know things?” and “How do I know myself?”
Klamen paints figuratively and abstractly, sometimes combining the two by incorporating geometric lines or patterns atop his high finished landscapes.
Klamen’s work is meditative and quiet, engaging the audience with deep tonal values and extreme control, requiring the viewer to look more than once into the complexity of each work. In Klamen’s most recent series, Paintings of Paintings, he isolated individual works of art in situ in museums, turned them on sharp angles and repainted them. He is represented in a number of public collections including: the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, the Elvehjem Museum of Art in Madison, Wisconsin and the McNay Museum, San Antonio.
Klamen earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1983 and his Master of Fine Arts in Painting at the School of the Art Institute in 1985. He lives and works in Chicago.
The WVAAC receives 300 to 400 pieces of art for the competition each year. Previous entries have included works from high schools and universities, art organizations and centers and independent artists. The competition is open to all artists, age 17 and older, who live within a 300-mile radius of Richmond, Ind.
Entries for the competition may include drawings, paintings, mixed media, photography, printmaking, computer graphics, relief sculpture and sculpture. Entries must be hand-delivered to The Gallery, Whitewater Hall, on the IU East campus between noon and 5 p.m., Monday, October 6, through Friday, October 10. Entries will not be accepted after October 10.
Each artist may submit up to three entries. Fees are $25 for one entry, $30 for two entries, and $40 for three entries.
Accepted entries will be on exhibit in The Gallery from November 6 to January 16. The artist opening reception and awards presentation will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 6, in Whitewater Hall.
Entry forms, information on eligibility and a calendar are available at iue.edu/gallery or by calling Ed Thornburg, The Gallery curator, at IU East at (765) 973-8605.