Call for Submissions: 2020 Member Exhibition Juried by Ruby T

Posted by & filed under Member Opportunities, Calls for Artists.

Deadline for online submissions: Friday, July 31 (midnight)

Exhibition Dates: November 1, 2020 – January 9, 2021

Spudnik Press is excited to announce Ruby T as our inaugural juror for the 2020 annual Member Exhibition. New in 2020, Ruby T will be selecting two Spudnik Press members to receive Juror Awards meant to support their artistic practice: a First Award of an Annual Membership and a Second Award of three Open Studio passes. Spudnik Press will also produce an exhibition publication in conjunction with the show and hold a private event for the selected artists to meet personally with Ruby T during the exhibition.

The annual Member Exhibition is a celebration of recent artwork by members of our printmaking cooperative. It aims to includes a wide variety of work by members of the organization, from brand new printers to established artists, working in a wide range of print and non-print media. This opportunity supports our members’ careers with public events and press, online representation, and the production of a printed publication featuring the selected artists into the exhibition. The exhibition also aims to inspire new interest in printmaking and its relationship to all forms of contemporary art, within Chicago’s larger arts community.

For the first time we are inviting a Guest Juror to select and curate the final works, and creating two new prizes, in order to showcase our members in Spudnik Press’ most prestigious exhibition to date.

About The Juror:

Ruby T’s work is an experiment in translating fantasy to reality, and she is fueled by anger, desire, and magic. She was named a 2018 Breakout Artist by Newcity and has had solo and two-person exhibitions at Western Exhibitions, Randy Alexander, Roots & Culture, and The Back Room at Kim’s Corner Food. Her work has been written about in the Chicago Tribune, Newcity, The Chicago Reader, and Chicago Artist Writers. She is a member of the organizing collective Make Yourself Useful.

As a Juror, Ruby T sees herself as an admirer who facilitates a narrative about the work she observes. She is excited about the range of artists who will apply, and looks forward to identifying threads and pathways within the multiverse that is Spudnik. A longtime community artist and collaborator herself, she believes in the power of a group show to create new meaning out of fellowship. In that same spirit of community, Ruby loves printmaking for its generosity, which she sees in both the repetition and dissemination inherent to printmaking, and also in the ethos of the printshop. As a communal space, she believes Spudnik has an alchemical power to let artists’ ideas and concerns seep into each other’s work, supporting a shift from the singular and private towards the collective and public. With that, Ruby believes the most important thing artists can do is use our gifts to resist the rightwing capitalist agenda, whether through overtly political artworks or by committing our resources to social justice movements.

Details:

  • Submissions are FREE and open to all current Spudnik Press members.
  • Artists may submit up to 3 artworks for consideration by the juror. (Some, none, or all may be selected.)
  • If work is available for sale, Spudnik Press retains 50% of income from the sale of artwork during the exhibition.

Requirements:

  • You must be a current member of Spudnik Press Cooperative.
  • Work must be from the last 18 months.
  • Work must have some relationship to printmaking. However, it does not have to include a printed element or be made at Spudnik Press.
  • Work must be ready to install in the Spudnik Press Annex (i.e. framed, able to be hung with magnets, or some other installation system included with the finished work).
  • Three-dimensional or fiber-based works are welcome and must be ready to install with instructions for installation. Spudnik Press has a limited ability to show video and audio pieces.
  • Shelves may be provided by Spudnik Press for publication-based work as well as small objects.

For questions about the content of your submission, please contact the Program Assistant Anders Zanichkowsky: anders@spudnikpress.org before Friday, July 31.

Interested in submitting, but not a member? Join or renew your membership today!

To Apply:

Complete the Online Submission Form by Friday, July 31, 2020 (midnight).
This form requires a Google login. For questions or issues, please contact Anders before Friday, July 31 at 5pm: anders@spudnikpress.org.

Submission Requirements:

  • One to three works and up to two files representing each work. Files must be named Name_Title_FileNumber and can be a single image, video, or audio file up to 10MB each. Only the first three works, and only the first two files of each work, will be shown to the juror.
  • Image List (PDF) with File Name, Title, Dimensions, Year, and Media for each file submitted.
  • Personal Statement (Up to 250 words) addressing the work you are submitting and its relationship to print. You are encouraged to include a link to your website, and may also include any background information about yourself as an artist.

Artists will be notified by August 20 and selected work must be delivered to Spudnik Press (ready to install) by September 30. The Juror’s Awards will be announced the week before the Opening Reception, and presented at the event.