Chip's Drawing of a Robot from Outer Space, 2005
It's that time again - We're very excited to announce the finalists for the Spring '06 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot!.
The Spring Edition Showcase will open with a reception for the artists on the evening of Wednesday June 7, 2006, from 6-8pm. The showcase will be on view Thursday, June 8 from noon - 8pm and Friday June 9 - Sunday June 11 from noon - 6pm.
Without further ado, we present to you the Spring 2006 Hot Shots:
Donna Alberico
Ian Baguskas
Andrea Chu
Alison Grippo
Raul Gutierrez
Michael Itkoff
Casey Kelbaugh
Andrea Longacre-White
Stefan Simikich
Sarah Small
Special thanks go to our awesome, fabulous and excellent panel for their insight, humor and hard work. And the other people who help make it happen: Jesse Chan-Norris and Jeff Kirsch for their technical prowess, Antony Van Couvering for hosting our panel meetings, Lauren Cerand for PR support, and also just for being her amazing self and last but not least the Spring intern crew: Anna Wolfgang, chief Hey, Hot Shot! blog editor, Christine Dillion (editor of the Jen Bekman Gallery News Blog), as well as recent arrivals Sophie Lvoff + Jane Tam.
It's always tough to narrow it down to the final ten, so we're also happy to include a list of great photographers in our honorable mentions category: Keliy Anderson-Staley, Dave Barry, Michelle Bruzzese, Sylvie Buchler, Samantha Casolari, Jessika Creedon, Eric Ray Davidson, Amy Eckert, Bethany Fancher, Rachel Hawthorn, Brandon Herman, Simone Lueck, Sara Macel, Jeremy Mazzenga, Liz Nielsen, Leah Oates, Pascal Shirley, Don Simon, Joanna Simpson, Michelle Westmark, Jen Williams and Shiigeki Yoshida
7 Comments
Congratulations to each. My loss to each of you is bitter sweet.
Well, congrats to the winners. It was interesting to have participated.
Interesting selections. Congratulations to the finalists.
Congrats to all.
I would be interested in some demographics (ie. how many total, how many international?) as 9 from 10 are from New York and 10 from 10 are from the US.
Are the biographies 'secret' from the panel or are they taken into account due to the proximity (2-3 weeks) of selection to exhibition?
Not (really!) jaded ... just issues that relate to future submissions.
Congratulations to the winners. I would've been happy too if I'd won! But it's fun to look at your pictures.
I also found it interesting to participate. All kinds of things go through your head when putting your artist statement together, and I wonder about the hundreds of reasons I could've been eliminated. I'll never know.
I too found the strong connection to New York among the winners interesting. I love New York. Does that count?
Anyway, I'm happy Jen's gallery and this contest exist. I plan to continue doing what I like doing, and developing that. Cheers to all.
We get entries from all over the world and in past seasons we've had winners from Japan, Israel, Canada, France and England. We've also had winners from all regions of the US.
I didn't actually realize that there was such a NY-centric focus to this season's winners until after the winners were announced. Panelists do see bios + statements as part of the process, but proximity isn't a factor. In this case, I didn't look at the locations while we were winnowing the list down the final ten.
While the timeline *is* tight between announcement and exhibition, we've always managed to pull it all together in time for the opening reception. (I won't lie - there have been times when we're hanging work at 4pm when the opening is starting at 6, but it's all turned out just fine.)
Christine, I'm glad you found the actual process of entering to be interesting - I do think that there's a lot of value in it. In my experience, artists often struggle with their bios and statements - it's my hope that having the structure of the competition is motivating and that the information that they organize and put together is useful beyond the entry alone.
Also, I know that choosing just three photos is agonizing for entrants, but that's by design - it's a good exercise, especially because editing one's own work is very often the biggest challenge that emerging artists face.
Thanks for your comments, and for participating in the competition. I love hearing feedback!
Hi Jen. Thanks for that. I'm truly not jaded... promise!
I also think it's very healthy for people to go through the exercise of thinking and writing about their work. It adds a lot of clarity to their practice and often opens up more doors creatively.
The problem I see with a lot of international competitions, from an entrants point of view, is to pick the genuine (as an opportunity for 'outsiders' to get that elusive 'break') from the money making.
Some entry fees for other competitions are significantly higher than HHS and they are extremely financially taxing for entrants. When you take into account the entry fees, the transportation costs and the excessive commissions then it can be a very expensive exercise indeed.
Visual artists, as with others, are an easy target due to the fine financial line they often tread and the level of desparation they may or may not have reached. With that in mind, it's important to know what's real or otherwise.
In Australia, for example, an average visual artists income is around AUD$7500 per annum (very roughly US$5600) and that's even pulled higher by a few exceptional success stories.
Visual arts, including photography, is also getting caned by lifestyle television programs. 'Look, you too can make a wonderful piece of art for your lounge. Just get some paint from Home Depot ... and all for less than $40!' ... or 'Just take you digital photo to company x and get a canvas print done.'
Anyway... 'nough of a rant!