ArtPrize Nine at GRAM

September 13, 2017 – October 8, 2017

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Sixteen artists will participate in ArtPrize Nine at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. The exhibition will feature works of art from regional, national, and international artists in mediums including painting, sculpture, mixed media, photography, drawing, and performance.

New this year is the Museum’s participation in Pitch Night, an ArtPrize program through which participants in select cities compete for funding and the opportunity to exhibit their art at a high profile venue. Chris Vitiello, winner of Pitch Night Durham, will transform one of GRAM’s galleries into a surreal, interactive environment with his time-based performance The Language is Asleep. Vitiello will be on-site for the duration of ArtPrize, writing and handing out one-line poems and occasionally transforming into the Poetry Fox, a giant fox who turns out custom, on-demand poems on his vintage typewriter.

The exhibition includes a diverse group of artists, who hail from six different U.S. states and Germany, and are competing within every ArtPrize category–2D, 3D, Time-Based, and Installation. Many thematic links can be found between the works on display: GRAM’s ArtPrize artists may explore humankind’s relationship to our ever-changing environment, the obstacles to communication, approaches to representing personal identity, and the ability of art to convey meaning.

GRAM is proud to host 3 of the 25 artists who have been awarded Artist Seed Grants to help fund their ArtPrize 9 projects. Leroi DeRubertis of Durham, North Carolina, Emily Mayo of Grand Rapids, and Jessica Wildman of Highland Park, Michigan will each receive a $2,000 grant presented by the Frey Foundation.