Tag Archives: asian art

Geisai Taipei 3 Art Fair Registration Open! 12/4/2011

Geisai Taipei is one of the big chances for independent artists and crafters to get noticed by the Asian art market, including galleries, curators, organizations, magazines and other organizations. One the one hand, with hundreds of artists competing for a handful of recognition awards, the chances of self-representing artists getting “discovered” and represented are slim to none – but on the other hand, that tiny chance of getting your art in front of industry leaders is enough, for most of us, to dish out the US$ 234 for a little booth (W 180X D 180X H 240cm) at this one day art fair event.

Plus, the growing popularity of Geisai and the large community of Taipei art connoisseurs means that, if well-utilized, Geisei can be a great opportunity to grow your fan base and increase your exposure – and maybe even to connect with some interested buyers.

Successful art fair presentation

Although I joined Geisei 2 last year, I didn’t know what I was getting into and presented very, very poorly. With just one little booth, I figured I better cram in as many paintings as possible, stacking them up on top of each other, and stuffing each little corner with personal oddities, fliers, news-scraps… I even had an electronic talking fish and a wooden Buddha statue to try and give my booth some style and color. BAD IDEA. You don’t want to present your art like 2nd hand knock-offs at a flea market. You want to project your paintings’ value with simple and clean presentation. Think like a gallery: white walls, lots of space, crisply printed title tags, high quality printed materials (i.e. business cards). If there’s room, perhaps a catalogue of works/price list.

What art should I show?

This question is much more tricky. With hundreds of competitors, you need a selection of paintings that brands you as an artist, stands out for it’s unique style, technique and theme. You want pieces that complement each other with similar colors. But you also want fucking good paintings – absolutely finished, pristine and polished: this means the edges have been painted or framed, the canvas has been glossed, it looks perfect. At the same time, you want something edgy/striking enough to make people gasp in awe-stricken stupor (ok, maybe not if you’re a landscape artist – but you should still shoot for it). Paint something that grips viewers and makes them sigh in wonder at the captivating beauty – or repugnant horror or scandalous humor – something that they will immediately go find their friends and drag them to visit your booth.

So what am I going to present?

Well I’m still struggling with that question. On the one hand I have some of my standard, unusual, Magritte-esque surrealist portraits of beautiful girls; a few of them are pretty good. Portraits or people paintings have won in the past. I also have some stronger pieces; my orange juice Buddha or my new sexy Sponge-Bob adultery painting, which is SURE to make a stir. But I also came back to Peru with some awesome wooden ornamental frames, to do a series of pop-art/religious icon paintings, which could be pretty awesome. I may need to get 2 booths this year.

Taiwan 100th Anniversary International Art Competition!

Art competitions are a great way to get more exposure for your art, and maybe pick up some great prizes. I’ve been telling myself for some time that I need to enter more art competitions but I don’t – mostly because I like to paint what I want without worrying about “winning” the crowd or judges.

However I just saw this post for an international art competition for Taiwan’s 100th Anniversary:

Get your brushes ready – Radio Taiwan International invites foreign nationals to celebrate the Republic of China’s birthday through paintings! 100 artists’ submissions will be selected by professional judges to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Republic of China (the official name of Taiwan’s government). The selected pieces will be shown off to the world in a digital gallery on the event’s website, and exhibited publicly in an outdoor projection exhibit in October to coincide with the nation’s centennial.

First, second, and third place winners will each receive a 7-day, 6-night food and accommodation package upon arriving in Taiwan! (From October 5 to 11, 2011; cost of plane tickets and visa fees not included.)

Prizes
‧One first place prize: US$1,000 and 7-days, 6-nights of food and accommodation
‧One second place prize: US$500 award and 7-days, 6-nights of food and accommodation
‧One third place prize: US$300 award and 7-days, 6-nights of food and accommodation
‧97 honorable mention prizes: ROC 100th anniversary memorabilia

Additionally, the winner of the most online votes will receive one Apple iPad 2. 20 participants in the online voting will also be randomly selected to receive one RTI retro-style radio each.

Eligibility
The contest is open to all foreign nationals living either in Taiwan or abroad. (ROC nationals are not eligible.)

Eligible paintings must include the following elements:
1. The artist’s impression of Taiwan
2. The artist’s blessing for the country’s centennial
3. The digits ‘100’

Judging Criteria
A panel of five professional judges will chose the 100 winning paintings. Evaluation will be based on each piece’s thematic expression (40%), creativity (30%), and use of color (30%).

Specifications

Entries must be A3 sized (420mm x 297 mm) for paintings in traditional media, or 720 dpi (1920 x 1080) in JPG format for digital paintings.

The submission period is from April 15, 2011 to June 30, 2011. Entries received after June 30, 2011 will not be accepted.

for more details visit: http://www.rti.org.tw/ajax/2011/2011_blessing/en/

How to win an art competition

So I’ve decided to enter, and win both $1000 and the ipad 2. This is going to be a bit tricky: I will need to paint something incredible that grabs the audience and gets them to vote for me. I’ll also need to be less jaded, cynical and controversial to get the judges to pick me – nothing too sexy or with political/religious undertones. Something fun and awesome… with the number “100” on it (I hate that requirement, but what can you do?)

I don’t have an idea yet but it’s definitely worth thinking of one. I wish I could do my “google God eating people” painting which is going to be awesome, but I don’t think that will fit; neither will the “hot girl gives fellatio to Taipei 1o1” idea. My “two Taiwanese gods angry as Jesus steals Asian Baby” painting is out, too.

Maybe just people laughing and having fun? A pretty landscape? I’ll think of something.

“Exposure 2”: Taipei Artist Village Foreign Artists’ Exhibition 台北國際藝術村-外國藝術家展覽 8/22/2011

Exposure 2 is coming up on October 22, 2011. It’s a collective art show (外國藝術家展覽) / outdoor art fair at the Taiwan Artist Village (台北國際藝術村), organized by the Taiwan Artists Collective. It’ll be a fun day with live music, food and a lot of foreign artists. I’ll be debuting some awesome new paintings, some incredible cut-out 3D art cards, paint-by-number postcards and some other fun stuff. It’s definitely the place to be in Taipei on Oct. 22nd – so be there, dammit!

Saturday, Oct. 22 · 12:00pm – 6:00pm – FREE Admission!
Location
Taipei Artist Village 台北國際藝術村 (02-33937377 )

No.7, Beiping East Rd.,Taipei 台北市中正區北平東路7號

Taipei Artist Village is about halfway between the Taipei Train Station and HuaShan art park; easy to walk to from either direction. From the organizers:

A day of raw art. There’s going to be a burst of colors and styles. A variety of appearances from various artists. It’s a day to expose the skills of artists from around the beautiful island of Taiwan. It will be an all day outdoor event. 

For more information visit the Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=118875508202516

Or the Taipei Artist Village page:

http://www.artistvillage.org/tav

 See you there!