Artists all around the world, and four from the Santa Fe area, are making the journey to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for an art event that breaks the mold.
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ArtPrize is an annual art competition started in 2009 by Rick DeVos. This year's incarnation takes place between Sept. 21 and Oct. 9. DeVos' idea for the competition was that it would be open to anyone, and the winner would be chosen through public vote. The grand prize is a whopping $250,000, smaller cash prizes are awarded to other artists who place.
Of the four from Santa Fe area, one of is Allen Gordon. Gordon is submitting a piece called “Chac Mool,” which is a replication of a sculpture found in Central America. Gordon says when he started making his piece, he thought it was going to be smaller than the four-feet-by-nine-feet steel and bronze sculpture he is taking to Grand Rapids.
"I just heard about ArtPrize and thought it would be a logical entry for an art exhibit of that type, because ArtPrize is probably the largest individual art exhibit in the country," he says. "And I thought that if I was going to enter a piece into some type exhibit, why not start at the top?"
ArtPrize stands apart from other competitions by how artists and venues are matched. Gordon says he filed his application online and posted a picture of his piece, and then businesses and galleries in Grand Rapids browsed all the pieces and chose which one they would like to showcase. Gordon will show his piece in front of the Courtyard by Marriott hotel.
The artist says his piece took extra time and attention to weld together because bronze and steel have different melting temperatures. He used to own a steel distribution company, and he says after he retired from it, he wanted to work with steel again, but in a more personal way.
"During that period, I never had a chance to really touch [steel]; I bought it and sold it," Gordon says. "And I said 'I really want to get the feel of it, hands-on.'"
Nancy Judd is the creator of Recycle Runway, a company that specializes in creating couture fashion from trash, is also participating in ArtPrize. Judd will make majority of her piece, "Eco-Flamenco," at ArtPrize by having people write environmentally friendly actions they will practice on pieces of recycled paper. Then she will create a red flamenco dress out of those eco-pledges.
Judd used to be the recycling coordinator for the City of Santa Fe, and has created other recycled couture items such as the one the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture bought for its permanent collection, "The Obamanos Coat."
Jill Shwaiko is also competing in ArtPrize with her piece titled, "Lessons of the Balance."
Another artist competing in Art Prize is Vin Maggiore. He and Gordon own Rusty Mesa, a Santa Fe-based company that specializes in bronze sculptures. One of Maggiore's most interesting creations is a life-size bronze gorilla, "Hazel," that sits in the Phoenix Zoo in Arizona.
Maggiore will submit a piece called "High Desert Guardian" (pictured), which he says was inspired by a wishbone-shaped piece of cholla cactus he found on a hike one day. "I think my piece is really cool, but I don't really expect to win," Maggiore says. "There are over 1,000 people entering this. It would be great to win, but it's like trying to win the lottery."
