Slowart productions

Hello, I am thinking of entering an Emerging Artists competition. It
is billed as the twelfth annual competition and I was wondering if
any one on the forum has participated in this event themselves or
knows someone that has. What I am really asking… if it is on the up
and up. The name of the sponsors is SlowArt Productions, located at
870 Avenue of the Americas NYC. The exhibit is to be held at the
Limner Gallery??? I guess that is in NYC also. There is fee for entry
(which is normal) but I really want more before I enter
this type of contest. Lots of nice numbers said for cash prizes, and
opportunities to show and sell work. Thanks for all the wonderful
and sharing. Beth Katz bethkatz@aol.com

Beth, I was duped into the “Emerging Artists Competetion” when I was
graduating from art school. They were the Slowiniski Gallery a few
years ago, at the edge of SoHo. I eagerly sent in my $25 slathering
at the propsect of being picked up by a gallery in NYC. I was
chosen as a “finalist”, which translated into space on their website.

It just so happened that I was in NYC during the Emerging Artist
show, so I thought I would pop into the gallery and check out the
work. Their website showed what looked like a rather nice gallery.
When I actually saw the physical space, it was about 150 sq ft.,
tops. There was a sum total of seven paintings on the wall and one
sculpture. I believe they only had one pedestal to display 3D work.
No cases, no other pedestals, no wall mounts. I truly believe I was
in the midst of a total scam.

After a couple of weeks, I called the gallery to inquire about my
website presence and had casually asked how many entries had their
show received. There was a long pause and finally, “I dunno.” Any
reputable gallery would be able to tell me these numbers.
Slowiniski uses this guise to pay the rent on his space, fuel his
website costs and his fancy color directory. Fair enough, this is
solid marketing in my book. But what bothers me, is that he is
using the title “Emerging Artists”, to drag in newbies and marketing
his show by admitting all media. He has no space to show “all media”
and his space is primarly a gallery for painters. In my opinion, he
does great disservice to 3D artists.

Also, in any decent show, you get a list of the jurors. Who is
jurying this show? I honestly believe he is not even bothering to
project the received slides.

Stay away from this guy. There are other excellent competetions out
there where your $30 could be better spent.

-k
Karen Christians
M E T A L W E R X
10 Walnut St.
Woburn, MA 01801
Phone:781/937-3532
Fax: 781/937-3955
http://www.metalwerx.com/
Accredited Jewelry Instruction

Karen, I have reason to believe your opinion of SlowArt is correct.

I also once applied to an Emerging Artists Competition there,
without knowing that a painter I knew was affiliated with the
gallery. She gave me the lowdown, which is that they do deliberately
write very vague entry criteria, without size or material constraints
related to what the gallery can actually show.

As you suspect, there’s no real jury process designed to sort
through the large numbers of entries brought in by this approach;
they simply show their friends.

Rumor leads me to believe that this is a very common way for small
galleries, and even more so online galleries, to operate. I no
longer submit to juried shows unless I’m invited by an in-house
contact, so I can be sure to get in. And I find that I’m invited
often enough to support the hypothesis that most galleries simply ask
the people they want to show, and treat unsolicited entries as
charitable contributions.

Of course, even when I’m invited I still have to pay the $25. But
at least this way I’m buying a resume item, rather than a rejection
slip.

-Sheba
Bathsheba Grossman (831) 429-8224
Creative prototyping www.protoshape.com
Microsculpture microsculpture.com
Bronze sculpture bathsheba.com