JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY is pleased to announce the 20th Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS International Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Art. For the twentieth anniversary of this important exhibition, the duration has been extended to coincide with the kick off of the New Orleans arts season with the opening reception in conjunction with Whitney White Linen Night on Saturday 6 August, 5:30-9:30pm which will see over 50,000 guests in the Arts District New Orleans. The exhibition will be on view from 3 August through 17 September 2016, with another First Saturday Gallery Opening on 3 September, 6-9 pm. Several of the selected artists will be present at each of these receptions.
The NO DEAD ARTISTS exhibition was founded by Ferrara in 1995 to give a voice to emerging artists. The exhibition's name is derived from the old adage that artists never achieve success until they are dead. NO DEAD ARTISTS turns that notion on its head and gives emerging artists their first break in the art world. In the 90's, the exhibition was open only to New Orleans-based artists and subsequently grew to include artists of Louisiana. In 2010, the exhibition expanded to become a national juried exhibition open to artists from the entire US, and finally in 2014 the exhibition went international.
Now in its 20th iteration, the exhibition has been a springboard for numerous artists leading to national press coverage, recognition, gallery representation and acquisitions by museums and other prominent collections. Each year gallery owner Jonathan Ferrara invites a panel of renowned arts professionals and collectors to select the newest creative talents. Past jurors have included Prospect.1 Founder and Curator Dan Cameron, Museum Director Billie Milam Weisman, Collector and Philanthropist Beth Rudin DeWoody, MacArthur Fellow John Scott, Whitney Trustee and Ballroom Marfa Co-founder Fairfax Dorn, NOMA Director Susan Taylor, artist Tony Fitzpatrick, Director of the Andy Warhol Museum Eric Shiner, Director of the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas and Founder and Artistic Director of the VOLTA Fair Amanda Coulson, Dishman Art Museum Director Megan Koza Young, ArtBridge Curator Jordana Zeldin, Collector and MoMA Board Member Lawrence Benenson, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Director Bill Arning, Brooklyn Museum of Art Board of Directors Stephanie Ingrassia, and Collector, Hedge Fund Partner and Prospect New Orleans Biennial board member Nick Mayor and director and owner of Art Market Productions Max Fishko.
For the 2016 edition, three renowned arts professionals served as the NO DEAD ARTISTS jury :::
ANASTASIA JAMES - Associate Curator at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco
FRANKLIN SIRMANS - Director of Perez Art Museum, Miami and Artistic Director of Prospect.3 Biennial, New Orleans
LESTER MARKS - Named Among Top 200 Collectors World Wide by artnet, Houston
Of the approximate 2,500 artworks submitted to this jury by over 500 artists worldwide, only thirteen artists were selected to have their work exhibited at JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY.
The 20th Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS finalists :::
ALEX BRAVERMAN ||| Chicago, IL
LARRY SIMONS ||| Brattleboro, VT
NATE BURBECK ||| Minneapolis, MN
MARYLOU UTTERMOHLEN ||| New Orleans, LA
JENNIFER DAY ||| Tucson, AZ
BETH DAVILA WALDMAN ||| Mill Valley, CA
SARAH KNOUSE ||| Lewisburg, PA
CHRISTINA WEST ||| Marietta, GA
BEN LONG + JACK SCHOONOVER ||| New Orleans, LA
JASON WILLAFORD ||| Dallas, TX
TI-ROCK MOORE ||| New Orleans, LA
CHRISTOPHER RICO ||| Clinton, SC
MIA YOON ||| Raleigh, NC
Comprised of painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, conceptual, mixed-media, installation, video and technology, NO DEAD ARTISTS is an exhibition known for a great diversity in media but with a cohesive cross-section of the pulse of Contemporary Art. The 2016 installment features over 30 artworks ranging in medium and style from the site-specific, recycled newspaper installation of Mia Yoon to the neon works of human rights activist Ti-Rock Moore. Other highlights of the exhibition include Nate Burbeck’s paintings of suburban and rural American landscapes and architecture and Christopher Rico’s gestural abstraction. All of these works and much more will fill the main and centre gallery spaces for the run of the show.
In addition to having their works exhibited at JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY, selected jury winners will be featured in a review by D. Eric Bookhardt, critic for Gambit Weekly and regional editor of Artpapers. The article will be featured on his blog New Orleans Art Insider, followed by a condensed editorial in The Gambit.
For the grand prize of the exhibition, one of the selected jury winning artists will be awarded a solo exhibition in 2016 at JFG. The 2012 winner Nikki Rosato (Washington D.C.), 2014 winner Marna Shopoff (Indianapolis) and 2015 winner Richelle Gribble (Los Angeles) not only received the solo show at gallery, but also, have successfully gone on to exhibit in art fairs in New York City, Miami, Basel (Switzerland), San Francisco, Houston and Seattle. These opportunities have garnered great interest from curators, museums and press for each of these artists . . . Stay tuned for the announcement of the 2016 winner at the close of the exhibition.
For more information, press or sales inquiries please contact the gallery director Matthew Weldon Showman at 504.522.5471 or email matthew@jonathanferraragallery.com. Please join the conversation with JFG on Facebook (@Jonathan Ferrara Gallery), Twitter (@JFerraraGallery), and Instagram (@JonathanFerraraGallery) via the hashtags #NoDeadArtists, #NDA16 and #JonathanFerraraGallery.