Gen Art SF, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the exposure of Bay Area emerging artists and cultivating an art collecting public, presents the fifth annual EMERGE 2002, an exhibition celebrating Bay Area's rising stars in visual arts. The juried exhibit opened with its annual free celebration event on July 17th.
The record number of submissions for this year‚s Emerge 2002 (more than 300) was encouraging, and proves that the high price of living in the Bay Area hasn‚t deterred young emerging artists from living and working here. The quality of work was remarkable as well, enabling the Emerge 2002 jury, constituting some of the best minds in the Bay Area art scene, to pull together an incredibly fresh, new collection of work that strays from what is being shown in most galleries in the area.
Many of the artists exhibiting at Emerge 2002 have taken a figurative, humorous and ironic slant to their work, pushing the envelope with pieces that are incredibly original. Interestingly, Emerge 2002 will include no photography, which has always been represented in the past. This year, mediums will include painting, mixed media, sculpture, video, new media, drawing and a conceptual artist.
"The caliber of work submitted was really quite impressive," said James Bewley, Program Director, New Langton Arts. "After the past couple of years, it‚s reassuring to see that San Francisco remains a breeding ground for emerging art and ideas. All of the work of the 13 finalists is unsettlingly spectacular in strange new ways."
The esteemed panel of Emerge 2002 jurors includes James Bewley, Program Director, New Langton Arts; Arnold J. Kemp, Associate Visual Arts Curator, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; Heather Marx, Owner, Heather Marx Gallery; and Stephanie Syjuco, Artist.
"We are thrilled to provide the Bay Area with a mainstay exhibit in which young emerging artists get an opportunity to present their work to the public," said Pamela Coddington, president of Gen Art SF's board. "The fact that we've been able to produce this event five years running is a tribute to the fact that the Bay Area art community is thriving, particularly the population of young emerging artists and those interested in supporting them."
Emerge is the embodiment of Gen Art SF's mission to raise awareness of artists and introduce art to a young generation of collectors by offering the selected regional talent a rare venue for exhibition without the prerequisite of gallery representation. In addition, it creates an ideal occasion for new collectors to become interested in viewing cutting-edge art, and possibly purchasing their first works.
Emerge 2002 artists include:
Libby Black (San Francisco), Joshua Callaghan (Berkeley), Gabrielle Drinard (San Francisco), Josh Greene (San Francisco), Robert Gutierrez (San Francisco), Wei-Chi Huang (San Francisco), Andrew Kleindolph (Oakland), BULL.MILETIC (San Francisco), Eamon Ore-Giron (San Francisco), Amy Rathbone (San Francisco), Inna Razumova (Hayward), Josephine Taylor (San Francisco), and Lee Walton (San Francisco).
IMAGE:
Robert Gutierrez
scarlet oh
oil on metal
7x9 in
2001
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