Art Prize: Why is it worth looking?

Last year, I first heard about the Art Prize from my co-worker Karen who mentioned that the giant water wave painting by Brooklyn artist won $250,000. It is one of the biggest prizes I have ever heard and is probably why Art Prize became so popular since it opened last year. 1713 artists displayed their artworks in 192 various locations in Grand Rapids. Venues included museums, galleries, hair shops, restaurants, coffee shops, and streets. The most interesting part of this event was that the general public voted for the winners. I was doubtful about the integrity of the winners’ artworks because normal people with less art background significantly impact the result of the prizes, especially when the last year’s first place painting of realistically rendered giant water wave, unwanted by the museums, is now hung on the back wall of the bar in Grand Rapids downtown.

With much speculation, I visited Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM). The quality of the works was far more than I expected. As walking along the way of the show, I was led to a small dark room that stirred up my curiosity. It was “Salt and Earth (Garden of Patricia)” by Young Kim. Inside was very dim because the material was very sensitive to the light. There were many pink drawings of body cells and membranes along the wall and two large flat piles of salt in the center of the room. On the one salt pile, a woman, Patricia, was drawn in life-size with closed eyes as if she was sleeping on the sand. On the other pile was the mirror image of the first drawing of Patricia with open eyes. I wanted to touch the salt pile because I was not sure how the drawing could have been possible on the pile of salt, not on the paper. I knew it was grain of salt only because there were traces of people touched it and left their hand imprints and even footprints. The artist statement explained that he wanted to show the weakness of Patricia, who was physically going through a lot. Indeed, the salt drawing was not permanent and could easily ruined by other factors such as light, wind and touch of people. The strong but hidden message made me think about life and how fragile human beings really were.

Second artwork that I really enjoyed was the “Vision” by David Spriggs. It was made out of acrylic on multiple sheets of transparent film housed within a display case. It looks like a huge convex light raying out of an enormous clear box. The most fascinating part was when I walked around to the back of it. The concave light ray gives very different look than the front view. It was sensational.  

The next place I visited was Calvin College Art Gallery. Compared to the GRAM, it was a cozy gallery with a seemingly coherent theme of ecology. Majority of works somehow relate to the eco-friendly ideas and integrated into each other very well. The cut-paper piece by the window called “Bitter Sweet” by Celeste Cooning was eye catching to the street pedestrians with delicate repetitive shapes of flowers and leaves. Across the view, there were white bird sculptures hanging in the ceiling down to the eye level with real skeletons of birds displayed right underneath. It was called “Fragile Ecology” by Anna Greidanus. Similarly, Allison Svoboda submitted an “Untitled” collage with repetitive shapes of black feathers.  Besides of these, there were recycle ideas and repetition of shapes that brought different artworks together. Overall, I thought the show was well coordinated, giving a strong sense of harmony.  I enjoyed the exhibition as whole than an individual work.

The last place I went was Fredrik Meijer Sculpture Garden.  There, I found a sculpture that reminded me of frequently used painting subject in medieval period, virgin Mary and baby enthroned. It was “Collective Conductivity” by Julia Rogers. In her statement she explained that she wanted to show the order in chaos in life and universe through the various sculptures of human. The sculptures were composed of glass heads and the metal bodies. One of them just looked like the virgin Mary and baby enthroned except that the woman figure was seated as the Buda’s pose and the baby on her lap. It was a strange combination of the images that I recalled from the Gothic paintings of virgin Mary and the Buda statues in Korea. The idea behind the work was very much like East Asian idea of energy that goes around our body to help us function in Yoga and Tai-chi.

When I found out that the giant pencil drawing in GRAM received the first prize, I had to go back to the museum to see it. I did not remember such a thing when I was there. How could I miss the first-prize winner? I realized that I passed by without much notice because I thought it was a big commemorative picture. As I was carefully looking into it, I really admired his technical skill and patience of putting many hours on the largest pencil drawing I have ever seen. However, I was not quite sure of its creativity. It was just a blown-up version of a commemorative picture of many veterans. Certainly the artist was brave enough to devote himself into such a time-consuming art but only patience and technical skill seemed not enough virtues as the best art.  The artist was from Grand Rapid and maybe he knew the taste of general public in Grand Rapid.
 Nonetheless during the Art Prize, the enthusiasm from the people really made the city alive. Downtown was always packed by art lovers and businesses run busier than ever with visitors from out-of-town. It was definitely positive energy that could have not happen in Grand Rapids otherwise. With knowing that Art Prize just started last year, it was really successful in terms of making the town alive, making the city known to the wider audience and educating general public about different kinds of art.  Plus, I heard from the GRAM receptionist that there is a jury process solely by experts for another prize, which will make the event even better.