ELIGIBILITY

National and international artists 16 years and older may submit a maximum of five works completed within the last two years and not exhibited in a previous CAC exhibition.

JUROR

Mat Gleason is a Los Angeles art critic, curator, commentator and writer for The Huffington Post, and publisher of Coagula Art Journal, which he founded in 1992. He recently curated 'Avant L.A.', to coincide with the Platform Art Fair, wherein the exhibition identified the 10 most compelling and important established and emerging artists living and working independently in Los Angeles.

AWARDS

Over $3,000 in awards money is available to the juror to present to artists.

ENTRY FEE

Members of the CAC may enter two pieces for $20, plus an additional $5 per piece, up to five pieces total.  Non-members may enter two pieces for $30, plus an additional $10 per piece, up to five pieces total.  Memberships start at $25 per year, and help support local arts exhibitions and non-profits programs.  Click here to become a member.

REQUIREMENTS

A) Register online

Register and pay online through our event website, then email your submissions to CACAJS2012@gmail.com with subject heading "AJS 2012".  Or you can fill out the PDF form and attach it to that email with the following information:

1. Images must be in JPG format – Maximum 2MB file size per image (suggested resolution of 300dpi)
2. Filename instructions: Last name_First name_entry#.jpg (ie. Smith_David_1.jpg)
3. Entry fee (For emailed entries, payment is only accepted by credit/debit card, either paid through the event website, or filled out in the payment section of the PDF form. For paypal, please use our paypal donation page and include a note that it's for your Juried Show entry.)

B) Register by mail or in person

Include the following information:

1. Completed entry form. (Download PDF here.)
2. Clearly labeled CD/DVD: with your first and last name_AJS2012
3. Image Format: must be in JPG format, Maximum 2MB file size (suggested resolution of 300dpi)
4. Video Format: must be Quicktime or Windows Media player ready
5. File Name instructions: Last Name_First Name__Entry Title_Entry#.jpg (ie.Smith_David_Untitled_1.jpg)
6. Entry Fee: Please include payment by check, money order, or credit/debit/paypal, or your submission will not be accepted.
7. If you wish for the return of your CD or DVD, include a SASE along with your submission.

Mail images and/or video (formatted and titled as listed above) to:

Contemporary Arts Center
AJS 2012
107 Charleston Ave, Suite 120
Las Vegas, NV, 89104

SELECTED WORKS

Selected artworks must be delivered ready to hang/display. Artworks considered unsuitable for hanging/presentation will be refused. Curatorial staff reserves the right to refuse an artwork that is misrepresented through documentation or is not the piece selected by juror.

SALES

The Contemporary Arts Center receives a 30% commission from all works of art designated for sale. Clark County sales tax is 8.1%.

SHIPPING AND INSURANCE

By submitting artwork for consideration for the 2012 Juried Show, the Artist acknowledges and accepts the following stated terms:

1. The exhibiting Artist is responsible for all applicable charges related to the preparation, packaging, insuring, and shipping/delivery of artwork to and from the gallery.
2. The Artist assumes all responsibility and holds CAC harmless for any damages incurred during shipping.
3. Artist may choose preferred art shipper.
4. Artist agrees to hold CAC harmless and waive all claims or causes of action against CAC, its officers, directors, employees, and volunteers for any and all damages, loss, or injury caused to any person or person’s personal property arising from or relating to the exhibition of Artist’s artwork at the CAC or by the Artist or persons affiliated with the Artist.

TIMELINE

February 24, 2012 - All entry forms and images must be received by Friday, February 24th, at 5pm Pacific time. Late entries will not be accepted.

March 5, 2012 - Selected artists will be notified via email of acceptance. PLEASE DO NOT CALL OR EMAIL THE GALLERY.

March 15-16, 2012 - Accepted works of art, including all shipped and hand delivered works, MUST be received at CAC by 5pm on Friday, March 16th. Late entries will not be accepted.

March 23 – April 27, 2012 - Duration of Show.

March 23 - Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony for artists and guests, 6-9pm.

April 6 - First Friday event, Downtown Arts District, 6-10pm.

April 27 - Close of Show.

April 28-29 - All hand-delivered work MUST be picked up by Saturday April 28, 12-4pm or Sunday, April 29, 12-4pm. Work left after this date will be subject to a $5 per day storage fee. All other work will be shipped by Saturday, May 5, 2012.

The Contemporary Arts Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, is a non-profit 501(c)3 art organization dedicated to presenting new, high quality, visual and performing art, while striving to build, educate, and sustain audiences for contemporary art. The CAC strives to provide a place where artists can learn about best practices, test new ideas in the public arena, and connect with fellow artists within and beyond our own community. Find more information, visit us on the web at http://www.LasVegasCAC.org

I just wanted to thank you for your presence in Las Vegas and to affirm that I believe your gallery is an asset to the community. I brought my two children in for a self-guided tour yesterday, and we left most impressed. My eight-year-old daughter, whom I am homeschooling, enjoyed the exhibits and also took great pleasure in speaking with various people in the building. The lessons learned were many, but the discussion that followed was the greatest teacher: that these people she just met, these artists, may or may not be able to make a living at their art, and that has no bearing on the end result. Artists do art out of pure love, and if you have it in you, you need to feed it, and if you don’t, part of you dies. The smell of paint, the din of music played and artists working, all of this was entirely formative. Furthermore, the John Wayne Gacy exhibit stunned me into silence. I translated his story posted at the beginning of the exhibit for my daughter so she understood who
 Gacy was, but the effect on me was indescribable. I stood and pondered how a man convicted of such heinous crimes could produce work that is so soft, so human, perhaps even childlike in its subject matter and its execution. The lesson for me was again, that I am not capable of judging people for the face that I see, and I was reminded again that the artist within reflects much of that which we cannot see from the outside. Again, I thank you.
Las Vegas Parton

Here’s the “GOOD” that is coming out of CAC leasing the space for the exhibition and accepting part of the proceeds from the sale of Gacys paintings:simply put, it will help us pay our bills….the CAC is a non profit, run primarily by volunteers, every month we are struggling to keep our doors open and bills paid. Our board members and volunteers spend many hours every week working for FREE to help keep CAC open. If anyone out there would like to raise some funds on an ongoing basis for CAC, please step forward, we need your help, not just now but ongoing.

No non profit is in a position to refuse funds, ever, but especially in these economic times. If some non profit is going to receive the proceeds, why shouldn’t it be CAC…we’re the ones taking the heat for allowing the works to be displayed in our space.

Anne Mulford CAC Board President

Best of Show
Philip Denker – “X”, pen & pencil on paper & matboard (24”x31”)
Artist Statement: My recent work is an attempt to resolve fundamental questions of design, form and function, while staying within subjective parameters that I set for myself. My investigation process is focused around the idea of creating a stylized representation of organic structures through patterns and configurations. The geometric patterns are not necessarily a specific mathematical formula, they evolve throughout each piece, and each piece becomes a springboard for the next.

1st Prize
Kim Fink  – “The Weight Of”, digital serigraph (30”x120”x8”)
Artist Statement: Since arriving in the remote Northern Plains ten years ago, I learned to embrace the remoteness of the Dakotas, consciously focusing on the idea of conjoining an interpretation of my external world with that of my local experiences – reflecting place and emphasizing recording my personal life experiences. It is my goal to create a fusion of cultural realities that explore objective verses subjective visions and develop a synthesis between image and meaning.

2nd Prize
Matthew Couper  – “Trickle Down Theory”, oil on canvas (58”x46”)
Artist Statement: Matthew Couper was born in New Zealand and recently immigrated to the USA, his practice over the past decade has appropriated western art history periods such as the Trecento, Quattrocento, and the Baroque. Couper uses the established narrative traditions of Spanish Colonial / Mexican retablos and exvotos to discuss the space between myth, religion and art politics. He recently stated that “like any good Johnny Cash, Nick Cave or Pixies song, you’ve got to have sex, death and religion fueling the fire” – ShareMag, Portugal (Spring Edition, 2011)

3rd Prize
Suzan Shutan  – “Bird Myth”, wire & pom-poms (72”x64”x17”)
Artist Statement: I use found and manufactured materials because they can comment upon accumulation of cultural debris and become their own subjective universes as they build form into patterns of communicative behavior of life processes. When introduced to Algorithms, I began formulating my own systems of mapping, both fictitious and natural, using movement (traveling spores, pheromones, birds, ants, commuters, migration and habitation). My structures multiply into sweeping patterns that spatially interact with architecture and often invite touch to activate the work. I use color as an emptive quality, the joie de vive of life. It also represents my growing up in a household where lime green and carrot orange were our pulsating carpet colors.

Honorable Mention
Christine Pinney Karkow  – “Landscape 10 (night)”, ultrachrome inkjet print, 30”x45”
Artist Statement: These images depict the ubiquitous landscapes of everywhere and at the same time of nowhere. The subjects are buildings and spaces that are unremarkable, perhaps not even worthy of being captured in an image. But maybe they are. Maybe in the midst of these mass produced, bland, repetitive spaces that have been created for the generation of profit there can still be some type of poetic essence, there may still be a unique narrative that could take place. But that is an open question and one that the production of these images is still searching to answer.

Honorable Mention
Joshua Levin, Ph.D.  – “Budache”, mixed media assemblage, (35”x19”x19”)
Artist Statement: I conduct ritualized visual experiments that transform mundane objects and images of everyday life into portals of sacred awareness and insight. The recycled bits of cultural refuse that are woven throughout my work represent a direct encounter with the excesses of modern living. They are physical expressions of our anxieties, specifically consumption as a response to insecurity and desire. Paradoxically, this cultural debris also contains symbolic reference to our values and our diversity, as well as the stories we tell about who we are and why we are here. With each experiment, I engage these themes and contradictions, fashioning trash into visionary objects that synthesize, amuse, inspire, provoke and renew