Works on paper

For the next 18 days, right here, in River City, Art­Prize 2011 will dom­i­nate many of our cit­i­zens with a sense of eupho­ria that one could plot on a scale between  a rainbow-covered car­riage ride pulled by uni­corns and a con­fab facil­i­tated by the local chap­ter of ‘Art School Grad­u­ates for Truth.’

Again this year, I looked at all 1582 sub­mis­sions at all 164 venues. It’s an axiom in art school that the doc­u­men­ta­tion is often bet­ter than the work. So, this time, instead of pick­ing a bunch of indi­vid­ual artists, I chose venues that, at least on paper, seem to have a strong cura­to­r­ial agenda towards select­ing high qual­ity, pro­fes­sional, con­tem­po­rary work while also the respect­ing the intent of each artist regard­less of media.

So, here is a list of 9 venues I plan on vis­it­ing first. I had hoped this list would be longer, but that is for another post. These venues may not be on your list. Feel free to politely add what you find in other venues in the com­ments below and I will make every effort to check  them out.

1. Calvin College–(106) Gallery
2. Fifth Third Bank/Warner Nor­cross & Judd LLP
3. Fred­erik Mei­jer Gar­dens & Sculp­ture Park
4. Grand Rapids Art Museum
5. Kendall Col­lege of Art and Design
6. Mer­can­tile Bank of Michigan
7. Site:Lab + U of M School of Art & Design
8. uica
9. Women’s City Club