Call to Artists – RECEIVE DEADLINE: June 25, 2009 – The theme and title of this exhibition, ‘Money is the Root of All Evil Carnival Barkers’, was chosen to create an entertaining commentary on the historical and contemporary pitch people of industry, who we call carnival barkers. Money has always been a powerful motivator of dealers. Maybe it’s the recession or maybe the carnival barker’s voices are just getting louder but we have definitely noticed an increase in the hawking of everything from infomercial products to art. The hawking of one’s wares could be called the world’s second oldest profession and while early carnival barkers shouted their best persuasions to you to as you walked by their cart or stand, today’s carnival barkers have a much wider distribution for their barking, delivered through electronic and printed text, television and radio.
Whether or not the products/wares have value is irrelevant. Today’s carnival barkers have taken their predecessors cues and elevated their barking into a true work of hilarious absurdity. Carnival barkers on infomercials hawk and over hype everything from food slicers, cosmetics, clothing, cars and trucks, knives, gadgets of all kind, creams and pills promising the fountain of youth and more recently there’s been an increase of mega-hype around the sale of art. Art dealers and related carnival barkers are hawking their new, up and coming artists as ‘renowned’ and as ‘art stars’ regardless of whether or not the term is applicable beyond their pocketbook’s hopeful imagination.
From the humorous and ridiculous to the absurd, carnival barkers and the methods they employ to distribute their messages offer much fodder for the creation of new works. For this exhibition, we’re looking for artists and designers to create visual commentary on carnival barkers from every industry and their historical craft from a contemporary perspective.
The exhibition will be held at BECA gallery, located at 527 St. Joseph Street, New Orleans, LA, in the heart of the Warehouse Arts District across from the Contemporary Arts Center. The exhibition dates are from August 8 – September 6, 2009 with a closing artist reception on Saturday, September 5, 2009 from 6pm-9pm. The exhibition catalog will be available beginning August 3, 2009. Works for this exhibition will be selected by BECA gallery co-directors and The BECA Foundation co-founders, Melissa Roberts and Kurt Schlough through a blind jurying process, meaning that no identifying information such as name, city, state, country, etc. is ever reviewed along with the works.
Download complete submission information and guidelines here: BECA Calls to artists
Artists selected for this group exhibition will be amongst the first artists included in The BECA Foundation’s new curated Artist and Designer Global Registry set to launch this Fall 2009. The Registry will eventually contain artists and works selected by a variety of curators from around the globe and made publicly available to writers, curators, gallery directors and collectors. This Registry will be the first curated global digital database of its kind that features both emerging artists as well as emerging designers on the leading edge of what’s next in contemporary art + design.
