GRAND RAPIDS—Seven local artists from Otsego and Plainwell are presenting work in Grand Rapids’ ninth annual ArtPrize competition.
They are among the more than 1,000 artists from dozens of countries displaying works of art throughout town.
All will compete for a combination of public vote and juried awards totaling more than $500,000.
The top public vote-getter in each of four categories—2-D, 3-D, Time-Based or Installation—wins $12,500; a $200,000 public vote grand prize will go to the artist who earns the most votes overall after two rounds of voting.
On the juried side of the event, a juror in each of the four categories will award $12,500 to one piece. The jurors will then select four more from their categories and a three-person grand prize jury will determine who receives the $200,000 juried grand prize.
The event also gives out more than $270,000 in grants, everything from artist seed grants to a fellowship for emerging curators.
Public voting is done at www.artprize.org or through a mobile app.
The first round of voting began Wednesday, Sept. 20, at noon and runs through 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 30. The top 20 vote-getters go to Round 2; voting for that begins Oct. 1 at 2 p.m. and runs through Oct. 5 at 11:59 p.m.
The following list of local artists in this year’s ArtPrize was compiled drawing from the information provided on the event’s website.
Otsego
Julie Baptiste
Cosmic Pizza
Good Pizza Company
10 Jefferson Ave. SE
Baptiste is a Kalamazoo-area painter and metal smith who grew up in Otsego.
She says on her website, “I have always really enjoyed painting, but like to explore two dimensional art using many other mediums, including oil pastels, ink and markers.
“When it comes to three-dimensional art, I enjoy working with glass and metals, whether is it in jewelry making, lampworking, or welding.”
She said she is currently working to open an art studio and gallery with her family.
“Cosmic Pizza” is an installation of 20 to 30 separate paintings, all done on 5-by-7-inch and 8-by-10-inch canvases in acrylic paint.
Kathy Baptiste
“For the Love of Elephants,” 2-D
Rocky’s Bar and Grill
633 Ottawa NW
Baptiste says in her ArtPrize profile she has always loved to draw, paint and create.
“Busy with my growing family, I set it all aside,” she said. “I enjoyed art as a spectator rather than a participant. I loved watching my children blossom as artistic and creative beings. Seeing them develop into adult artists with their own perspectives of the world has sparked my interest anew.”
Her entry will be a series of 8-by-8-inch paintings of elephants in acrylic.
Jerred Baptiste
“Regrowth,” Installation
Good Pizza Company
10 Jefferson Ave. SE
Baptiste said on his ArtPrize profile that he is a self-taught borosilicate glass artist from the Kalamazoo area.
“I have always been fascinated by the fact that in a hundred thousand years someone could dig up one of my glass “artifacts,” unchanged by time,” he said.
“Regrowth,” he said, represents ego death.
He said it was about “Breaking free from the mundane routine and viewing the world through fresh eyes.”
The 24-inch square installation incorporates paint, papier mache, wood, glass and light.
Jessica Boyett
Mitten Sunsets,” 2-D
Good Pizza Company
10 Jefferson Ave. SE
Boyett said on her ArtPrize profile she was a southwest Michigan artist who enjoys creating new things, being outside and time with her family.
“I have been creating things ever since I can remember,” she said. “Most of my art is from repurposed materials, from jewelry to paintings. Mixed media pieces and acrylic paints are some of my favorites.”
“Mitten Sunsets” is a painting is of a Lake Michigan sunset, captured in the mitten silhouette. It is done in acrylic paint on a 30-by-30-inch gallery canvas.
John Jaeger
“Phantom Strikes,” 2-D
Bangkok Taste Cuisine Cafe
15 Jefferson Ave. SE
Jaeger said on his ArtPrize profile he is a U.S. Marine veteran and enjoys painting using oil on canvass.
“I started painting at 35 years of age and it has remained my favorite pastime ever since,” he said. “I love to create imagery and share it with others.”
“Phantom Strikes” depicts an F-4 Phantom jet engaging a MIG fighter over Vietnam, a 22-by-18-inch oil painting
Plainwell
Deborah Mattson
“Broadsheet Commemorating the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation,” 2-D
Cornerstone Church - Heritage Hill
48 Lafayette Ave. SE
Mattson said on her ArtPrize profile that she works as a product designer and printmaker with two degrees through Kendall College of Art and Design in furniture design and printmaking.
“I have been printmaking for 20 years... I work primarily with etching, letterpress, and lithography,” she said. “I usually do series of etchings and bind them together as artists’ books.
“Most of my art consists of realistic images of the places I live and work. I try to express the beauty and integrity of the people and places around me.”
Her piece “Broadsheet Commemorating the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation” is a copperplate etching commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, inspired by a Reformation Centenary broadsheet produced in Leipzig, Germany, in 1617. It measures 30 by 16 inches.
“As a printmaker, I’ve always been cognizant of the role printmaking played in the modernization of society when it was still a new technology in the 16th and 17th centuries,” Mattson said. “It is based on the Biblical passage Matthew 25: 31-46—Christ’s separation of the sheep and the goats—and the social justice issues implied by this passage.
“The ‘do -it-yourself’ sheep and goat masks at the bottom of the composition invite viewers to contemplate their own place in the scene.”
Elaine Tolsma Harlow
“This Land is Your Land,” 2-D
the city water building by the richard app gallery
1101 Monroe Ave. NW
Tolsma Harlow said in her ArtPrize profile that she works out of her west Michigan studio. The Calvin College graduate is represented by LaFontsee Galleries in Grand Rapids. Her work has been featured on the cover of the arts magazine On-The-Town and her paintings are part of the collections of Johnson Controls in Holland, The DeVos Children’s Hospital and Spectrum Hospital. Tolsma Harlow also has taught as an adjunct instructor at Calvin College in the painting department.
“This Land is Your Land,” she said, is an attempt to create “a visual history, using layers of wax to explore a balance between past and present.
“Encaustics—painting with hot wax—is the vehicle I use to accomplish that. The layers of wax are built up, one upon the other, and then are scraped away, reducing them back down, finding harmony in the layers. This process of repeatedly laying down wax, fusing it with heat and scraping it down informs the final piece. In the seeming chaos, I look for order and structure and find beauty in that.
The piece measures 40 by 12 inches.
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