ING Discerning Eye - selected artists archive published

The ING Discerning Eye is the first art competition that I've come across which has published a comprehensive archive of the works selected for the 2010 exhibition.

The good news for those thinking of submitting artwork to this art competition (see Making A Mark: ING Discerning Eye 2011 - Call for Entries) is you can now see all the works which were exhibited last year.

The deadline for entries to the 2011 exhibition is 2/3 September in London - and dates in August for regional pick-up points around the UK

This is the online gallery of the 2010 ING Discerning Eye Exhibition. You can select individual artists from a to z listing.

The one quibble I'd have with the archive is that it's not clear which are works which were selected and which were artists invited to exhibit.  To my mind that's something which needs to be addressed by the 2011 archive.  [I stand corrected - see comments - the information is there, just not as obvious as it could be!  The information about the number/percentage selected via open invitation is still missing - or can somebody else spot that?]

You can also access:

• the archive of the 2009 exhibition
• the archive of artwork by artists exhibiting in the 2008 exhibition

I'm not quite sure when this was done as I've never seen it before and I usually crawl all over this site when writing posts.  I suspect it may have been generated as part of the marketing activities for the 2011 exhibition.  Its profile has certainly increased markedly in recent weeks particularly through postings on Facebook and Twitter.

The pages for the 2010 judges pages also list all artists and the prices listed for the artwork exhibited which they chose - see links below.

• Ishbel Myerscough
• Robbie Wraith - who won the Discerning Eye Founder's Purchase Prize in 2009
• Tim Barber
• Mark Rappolt
• Nina Campbell
• Judith Collins

Here are some interesting facts about the exhibition - quoted on the website - which indicates that both the number of artists and number of works are reducing.

• 2010: There were 218 artists and 445 works exhibited.

• 2009: There were 224 artists represented by 505 works in 2009.

• 2008: There were 244 artists represented, 178 (about 70%) accepted from the open submission. The total number of works was 572, with about half from the open submission. Sales of works were up 25% from 2007 at almost £120,000 (purchase prizes added a further £10,250), with over 27% more works sold than in 2007.

These are small works - and the Mall Galleries is big.  In my opinion, there ought to be more of a focus on getting the selectors to choose more works.  After all, the Small Weston Room at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition is one of the most popular rooms with visitors in the whole exhibition - and it achieves a lot of sales!

For further reference

• this is my review of last year's exhibition - 
  MAKING A MARK: REVIEW: The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2010
• Art Competitions in the UK - Resources for Artists

Links: 

• Making a Mark: ING Discerning Eye 2010 - selected artists 25 Sep 2010
• Making a Mark: Exhibition Review - ING Discerning Eye 2009 16 Nov 2009
• Making a Mark: ING Discerning Eye 2008 - Prizewinners 15 Nov 2008
• Making a Mark: ING Discerning Eye 2008 - a review 13 Nov 2008
• Making a Mark: Who's been selected for the ING Discerning Eye 2008? 10 Sep 2008
• Making a Mark: ING Discerning Eye at the Mall Galleries 24 Nov 2007