37th Annual Juried Student Exhibition
Upcoming related events:
Kristen Williams, Frog Thoughts, 2018, photography (detail), featured in 36th Annual Juried Student Exhibition, Art Museum of the University of Memphis
(IMPORTANT UPDATE) click here for results on Tyler Stallings' selections for the 37th Annual juried Student Exhibition
Exhibition - Event Page
Juror's Lecture - Event Page
Juror's StatementI want to thank the University of Memphis for inviting me to be the juror for the 37th Annual Juried Student Exhibition. The Art Department should be very pleased with itself for having the opportunity to exhibit such a strong showing of works. During the selection process, I tended to look for work that presented an innovative exploration of materials and content. The jurying process represents only one person's point of view so I hope that it is not a discouragement to anyone whose work was not selected. In the end, passion for one's own vision and perseverance are often what make a successful artist, that is, more than being in one juried exhibition, in addition to seeing oneself beyond the university's context where one's peers and teachers have been the main audience while a student. Although this is not a thematic exhibition, I noted particular strengths with ceramic and sculptural works; or perhaps they were just my preferences. Some threads of thought weave through the collective work of the students. As if alluding to the dark underside of contemporary America, drawings, paintings, sculpture, photo-based work and installations in the show allude to horror, to biology gone wrong, to dark forces, to conspiracy, to madness, to monsters, to disease, decay and decomposition, to anxiety over losing control, to bumping into one's own secret fears behind locked doors. Perhaps these tendencies reflect a grappling with issues of representation and identity in contemporary America at present. In light of this being a show that focuses on new artistic talent in Memphis, I'd like to provide some thoughts on art-making away from the gravitational forces of either Los Angeles or New York. In 1990, when I arrived in Southern California, after living my first twenty-five years in the South (New Orleans, Montgomery, Birmingham, Louisville, Sewanee, TN, and, lastly, Atlanta) the Los Angeles art scene was constantly compared with New York's. The common refrain was that "the talent's in L.A. and the market's in New York"; due in part to the dominance of art schools in southern California. The conventional wisdom was that there was less of a market in L.A., and artists did not live in close proximity to one another, unlike in the claustrophobic confines of Island-Manhattan, so there was less reason for an artist to imitate what sold, hence, "why not pursue your passion!" For these reasons, the limited market and cultural isolation allowed artists to pursue quirky, idiosyncratic visions. However, this was not to last. The former period of cultural isolation evaporated at least ten to fifteen years ago, followed by a highly competitive atmosphere for artists. In this sense, Memphis is ideally-suited for innovative expression and authentic practice for the very same reason that L.A. was ideally located to produce quirky visions two to three decades ago. In this light, Memphis can be seen as a kind of artistic utopia. Enjoy it! Tyler Stallings, Juror and Director, Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion, Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, California, January 2020. |
ACCEPTED ARTISTS (in order of submissions timeline, 43 accepted artworks total, one by each accepted artist)
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Erica Vanhaute Nicholas Svoboda Travis Washington Julie Darling Ethan McVay Jessica Williams Amber McCollum Amaia Renea Anna Hoard E. E. Fisher Kayla Owens Cheryiah Hill Catt Weglicki Charis Barnes Mason Nolan Caleb Stokes Vlad Volkov McKayla Cunningham Judith Dierkes Tracy Treadwell Chan Cobb Clay Palmer |
Kathleen Stevens Kennedy Haney James Powell Becky Blackburn Jasmine Lashae Smith Richard Echols Robert L Pugh Rachel Stovall Davis Malik Muhammad Alexis Coleman Becka Matthews James Sentenn Kristen Faith Williams Ladonna Duncan William Lescheck Jonquil Lindsey Denzel Sterling Porter Mac Schaaf Elizabeth Rast Estiffany Mosby Jeyra Mayer |
37th Annual Juried Student Exhibition: Tyler Stallings
on view February 1st-February 28th
Awards Update: Awards were announced at 4:30pm on Saturday, February 1st.
(left to right 1-10 (1) McKayla Cunningham, graduate student (2) Jessica Williams, undergraduate student (3) Catt Weglicki, undergraduate student (4) Cheryiah Hill, undergraduate student (5) Rachel Stovall Davis, graduate student (6) Elizabeth Rast, undergraduate student (7) Jasmine Lashae Smith, undergraduate student (8) Kristen Faith Williams, graduate student (9) (Jonquil Lindsey, undergraduate student 10) Richard Lou, Art Dept. Chair
Merchandise certificate
$100 from Art Center Supply Store, Inc.
Cheryiah Hill
She Has Eczema
Tape
Merchandise certificate
$100 from Art Center Supply Store, Inc.
Jessica Williams
Bloodline
Multi-media ceramic sculpture
Membership Award (courtesy the Metal Museum)
Mason Nolen
Untitled
Mixed media
Membership Award (courtesy the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art)
Catt Weglicki
There is No Away
Found footage, clear plastic, plastic fish bowl, water
Membership Award (courtesy the Dixon Gallery & Gardens Museum)
McKayla Cunningham
Skin
Graphite on paper
Membership Award (courtesy the Dixon Gallery & Gardens Museum)
Erica Vanhaute
Self Portrait as Feet
Oil on canvas
Membership Award (courtesy the Dixon Gallery & Gardens Museum)
Clay Palmer
Numbered, Weighed, and Wanting (The Writing on the Wall)
Oil on canvas
Membership Award (courtesy the Dixon Gallery & Gardens Museum)
Rachel Stovall Davis
"Spine."
Ceramic, unscented soap, lamb's wool, wood
Membership Award (courtesy the Dixon Gallery & Gardens Museum)
Jonquil Lindsey
Grief
Photography
Best of Photography Merchandise Certificate Award
$150
Sponsored by Jack Robinson Gallery
Jasmine Lashae Smith
"Untitled"
Photography
Art Department Undergraduate Award
$300
Sponsored by Friends of the Art Department
Nicholas Svoboda
It's All Good, No Worries
Mixed media
Art Department Graduate Award
$300
Sponsored by Friends of the Art Department
Richard Echols
Gaze
Oil on canvas
Graduate School Graduate Purchase Award
$1000
Sponsored by the Graduate School
Kristen Faith Williams
Oh, I don't know, something about the cosmos"
Photography
University of Memphis President's Purchase Award
$1000
Elizabeth Rast
Vernacular
Mixed media on Arches paper
ABOUT THE JUROR
Tyler Stallings' curatorial work focuses on political, social, popular culture, and
science-fictional thinking themes with an emphasis on large-scale installation, painting
and photography. Currently, he is director of Orange Coast College's Frank M. Doyle
Arts Pavilion. He was Artistic Director at UCR ARTSblock'sCulver Center of the Arts
(2007-2017), and was chief curator at Laguna Art Museum (1999-2006). At UCR ARTSblock
(encompassing the California Museum of Photography and the Barbara & Art Culver Center
of the Arts, and now called UCR Arts), he curated or co-curated: Truthiness: Photography
as Sculpture(2008), Intelligent Design: Interspecies Art (2009), Your Donations Do
Our Work: Andrea Bowers and Suzanne Lacy (2009), The Great Picture: The World'sLargest
Photograph & the Legacy Project (2011), Margarita Cabrera: Puslo y Martillo (Pulse
and Hammer) (2011), Lewis deSoto & Erin Neff: Tahquitz (2012), Free Enterprise: The
Art of Citizen Space Exploration (2013), Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction
in the Americas (2017, traveled), and Yunhee Min &Peter Tolkin: Red Carpet in C (2018).
Other notable exhibitions elsewhere include CLASS: C presents Ruben Ochoa and Marco
Rios: Rigor Motors (2004), Whiteness, A Wayward Construction (2003), Surf Culture:
The Art History of Surfing (2002), Desmothernismo: Ruben Ortiz Torres (1998), and
Kara Walker: African't (1997).
At The Doyle, he has organized Amy Elkins: Photographs of Contemporary Masculinity (2018), Elizabeth Turk: ThinkLab .002: Extinct Bird Cages (2018), Stargazers: Intersections of Contemporary Art and Astronomy (2019), and Empty Vessel—Amir Zaki (2019, traveling). He co-edited the anthology, Uncontrollable Bodies: Testimonies of Identity and Culture (Seattle: Bay Press, 1994) and is the author of an essay collection, Aridtopia: Essays on Art & Culture from Deserts in the Southwest United States (Blue West Books, 2014). More information, www.tylerstallings.com, https://www.orangecoastcollege.edu/DoyleArts, https://ucrarts.ucr.edu
ELIGIBILITY
University of Memphis undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in a U of M Art
Department course (ART or ARTH) during the Spring, Summer or Fall of 2019. This includes
studio art, graphic design, photography, and art history. Non-majors are welcome.
Students who have graduated and are not currently enrolled as of Fall 2019 cannot
submit an entry.
AWARDS
Art Department Graduate Award ($300)
Art Department Undergraduate Award ($300)
5 Membership Prizes, courtesy Dixon Gallery and Gardens
Membership Prize, courtesy Memphis Brooks Museum of Art
Membership Prize, courtesy The Metal Museum
Two $100 Merchandise Certificates, provided by Art Center Supply Stores Inc.
Best of Photography Merchandise 150.00 Certificate Award, sponsored by Jack Robinson
Gallery
Graduate School Purchase Award of $1000.00
UofM Presidents Purchase Award $1000.00
ENTRY GUIDELINES
• Limit of 3 works per student
• Works must have been completed in 2019.
• Works cannot include live organic material, candles or open flames.
• Entries selected for the exhibition must be completely ready to install with appropriate
mattes, frames with hanging devices and hardware or other installation preparation.
Incompletely prepared work will be rejected. (Photos / 2D works must be matted and
framed behind glass or mounted with either French cleat or hanging wire on back. No
loose prints or matted but not framed works permitted.)
HOW TO ENTER
• Complete all required fields of the Submittable online entry submission form.
• Each online entry MUST be accompanied by 1-2 uploaded images
(alternate views for example) or other media files.
Entries must be submitted online here on this submission form.
Or, find a link to the submissions page at memphis.edu/amum
CALENDAR
Thursday, December 19 11:59pm (entry deadline)
Last day to submit online entries
Friday, January 14
Notification of acceptance in the 37th Annual Juried Student Exhibition
Thursday, February 27th, 7pm
Jurors' Lecture, open to the public, Location to be announced
Thursday, January 16 through Wednesday, January 22
Accepted artworks delivered to AMUM 142 CFA Building, 9am-4:30pm each day
Saturday, February 1, 3:00pm-6:00pm
Opening Reception for 37th Annual Juried Student Exhibition, presentation of awards
@4:30pm
Monday, March 2-Thursday, March 5
Artists pick up work in AMUM 142 CFA Building, 9am-4:30pm each day
The Art Museum of the University of Memphis
142 CFA Building, Memphis, TN 38152
General Contact:
artmuseum@memphis.edu
/ 901.678.2224
Technical Questions:
jnmiller@memphis.edu
/ 901.678.3747