Fusion Art is very pleased to announce that the 9th Artist Spotlight solo art competition opens for submissions on January 12, 2020. The gallery created this monthly solo art exhibition series as an outlet for emerging, mid-level and, even, professional artists to gain more worldwide online exposure.

The art world has changed in the last 2 decades. With the introduction of Facebook in 2004, Twitter in 2006, and Instagram in 2010, the way artists and their collectors/buyers find each other has changed. Through online and social media exposure, artists and collectors who may have never found each other previously, can find, buy and sell art to each other.

The Artist Spotlight Series is designed to to assist artists gain exposure through the promotion of solo art exhibitions on the Fusion Art website, through online press releases and articles, and social media promotion.

Artist Spotlight will highlight individual artists who have an overall body of work to showcase.  Each month, Fusion Art selects one traditional artist, one digital & photography artist and one 3-dimensional artist (if the gallery has received 3-dimensional entries) to promote by providing the artists with individual solo art exhibitions.

To qualify for Artist Spotlight artists must have a cohesive body of work to showcase with a minimum of five and a maximum of twenty pieces of art.

The Artist Spotlight competition is an open competition. There is no theme and any subject matter and any media are acceptable. Artist Spotlight will be a more competitive environment than our monthly and quarterly themed competitions.  While the overall quality, originality, creativity, composition and presentation of an artist’s work is always an important consideration in all Fusion Art’s competition, Artist Spotlight is designed to highlight those artists who have a cohesive, quality, body of work to showcase. The artwork included in the Artist Spotlight Solo Art Exhibition does not need to be for sale.

In addition to the evaluation of the artwork the artist must submit an artist’s biography and/or artist’s statement. A well-written biography and/or artist’s statement is required for the Artist Spotlight Solo Exhibition Series.  A listing of exhibitions the artist has participated in does not constitute a biography or artist’s statement. Although only one is required it is strongly recommended that an artist submit both.

A well-written artist biography and statement are essential for artists.  Artsy.net has written an exceptional article on how to write an artist biography. Art Career Coach, Renee Phillips, has also written two very helpful articles with recommendations for how to write an effective biography and mistakes to avoid when doing so.  Please refer to the links below for assistance with writing a biography:

https://www.artsy.net/article/elena-soboleva-what-we-learned-from-writing-7-000-artist-bios

https://renee-phillips.com/how-to-write-the-artists-biography/

https://renee-phillips.com/mistakes-to-avoid-when-writing-your-artists-biography/

For suggestions and assistance with writing an effective artist’s statement, please refer to the link below from ArtBusiness.com:

http://www.artbusiness.com/artstate.html

These suggested resources are only suggestions for formats to follow. Fusion Art is not advocating that artists need to hire someone to write their bios and artist’s statements for them. An artist does not have to be an accomplished writer to create a well-written biography and artist’s statement. But please note that the artist’s statement and/or biography will be part of the overall evaluation of an artist’s entry for Artist Spotlight and excerpts from either one may be included in the official press release and/or article announcing the artist’s solo art exhibition.

The 9th Artist Spotlight competition opens January 12, 2020 and will close on March 10, 2020.  Twelve winners will be selected and notified of their acceptance as an Artist Spotlight winner by March 15, 2020. This round of Artist Spotlight exhibitions will open on April 1, 2020 and continue for four months.

The selected winning artists will be given the opportunity to submit additional works for inclusion in their solo art exhibition up to a maximum of 15 additional images. The artists will have one week from the time they are notified they have been selected for Artist Spotlight to submit the images – otherwise only the works included in the submission will be included in the exhibition.  There will be no exceptions or late additional works allowed.  All submitted images are not guaranteed to be included in the Artist Spotlight solo exhibition.

Artist Spotlight winners will receive a one month solo art exhibition on the Fusion Art website. They also receive an invitation to the annual group show in February of each year. The artist will be able to select one artwork from the solo exhibition to participate in the group show.

An artist may only be selected as an Artist Spotlight winner once in a 12 month period. After 12 months an artist may submit to be an Artist Spotlight winner again.

Dates and Deadlines

• Call for Artists Announced: January 12, 2020
• Deadline for Entries:  March 10, 2020
  
• Opening of the first Artist Spotlight Solo Exhibitions:  April 1, 2020
• Opening of the second Artist Spotlight Solo Exhibitions:  May 1, 2020
• Opening of the third Artist Spotlight Solo Exhibitions:  June 1, 2020
• Opening of the fourth Artist Spotlight Solo Exhibitions:  July 1, 2020
• Like all the online exhibitions – once the solo exhibition closes it will be archived on the site under Archived Exhibitions for 3 years.

Entry Fees

• A nonrefundable entry fee of $35 for up to 5 images.
• Artists are encouraged to enter the maximum number of images allowable for the entry fee so as to show they have an overall cohesive body of work available for a solo exhibition.
• Once selected as a winner the Artist Spotlight winning artists will be allowed to submit additional images (up to a maximum of 15 additional images) to include in the solo exhibition for no additional fee. All submitted images are not guaranteed to be included in the Artist Spotlight solo art exhibition. The artwork included in the Artist Spotlight solo art exhibition does not need to be for sale.
• ENTRY FEES ARE NOT REFUNDABLE
• Payment is required at the time of entry.

Acceptable Mediums & Sizes

• “Traditional” is open to the following 2D media:  painting, drawing, pastels, inks, pencil, printmaking, encaustic, fiber, and mixed media.
• “Photography & Digital” is open to the following media: analog photography, digital photography, digital photo artwork, digital painting, digital manipulations, digital collage, photopainting, vector drawing, digital mixed media (integrated art). Digital Art that is a derivative work, created from another original artwork, must be significantly different as to constitute a new original work.
• “3-Dimensional” Art is acceptable in this competition and is open to the following media: relief, pottery, sculpture, installation, kinetic, and conceptual 3-D artworks created in metal, paper, wood, stone, fiber, plastics, glass, ceramics, or any other material which can be used to create 3-dimensional art.
• There are no size limitations on the artwork submitted.
• Artwork that has previously been entered into and/or won a Fusion Art competition may be entered into Artist Spotlight.

Awards

• Artists will receive a one month solo art exhibition on the Fusion Art website
• Artist Spotlight winning artists receive an invitation to the annual group show in February of each year. The artist will be able to select one artwork from the solo exhibition to participate in the group show, subject to the gallery’s approval.
  
• Artists will receive a digital award certificate, event announcement postcard and a copy of the press release for their art portfolio.
• A video of the Artist’s exhibition will be created and available on the exhibition webpage and Fusion Art’s YouTube channel.
• The artists and the solo art exhibition will be promoted extensively through the gallery’s website, in hundreds of online press release announcements, email marketing campaigns to over 2000 buyers, collectors, galleries and art professionals, online event calendars, through art news websites including ARTFIXdaily, Artweek/Artjobs, Art Guide and Art.base.co and through our extensive and continually growing social media network. Artweek/Artjobs, alone, has 30,000 newsletter subscribers and almost 300,000 website visitors per month, Art.Base.co has over 10,000 newsletter subscribers and in excess of 35,000 unique monthly visitors, the Art Guide is one of the most online referenced resources for art events locally, nationally and internationally, and ARTFIXdaily is the industry leader in curated news from the Art World.
• Links to the artist’s website will be listed on the exhibition page and should result in increased expoosure and traffic to the artist’s website.
• Fusion Art’s objective is to promote the artists, worldwide, to art professionals, gallerists, collectors and buyers.

Fusion Art utilizes the Submittable platform to receive, process and jury all competition entries.

Submittable is an international platform that is used for administrative processing by over 9000 organizations that specialize in art, photography, publishing, music, film-making, education and grants. It provides artists with a free, secure and easy-to-use system to apply to a wide variety of national (and international) juried art exhibitions 24 hours a day. There is no cost to the artist to register on the site and all payments processed through Submittable are secure. Submittable accepts both credit cards and PayPal.

Artists who submit an entry and images to Fusion Art must agree to Fusion Art’s Terms of Service and Use, Privacy Policy and Competition Rules.

Read the full Competition Rules on the submission page. Click the button below to submit: