This is about the
ING Discerning Eye Exhibition
which can be seen both online and at the
Mall Galleries
this week - until 20th November.
The exhibition includes more
than 500 small artworks by 359 artists
To be honest I thought the exhibition was next week and I'd not
seen any reminders on my Facebook feed.
More importantly, having just realised(!), I haven't yet seen it - and could go today but my osteoarthritis especially hates lots of heavy rain (today) which is why I'm sat writing about it before I've actually seen it!
You can find details of how to visit and the DAILY demonstrations at the end
of this post.
I'm going to start by taking a quick look at the two organisations involved
in this exhibition - because without both of them this open art competition
and exhibition of small works would not exist.
I've usually focused on the exhibition - but the very fact that the exhibition
continues to exist when so many have fallen by the wayside I decided a
different approach is relevant this year.
ING Sponsorship of Art
I'd like to start by applauding ING for their continued sponsorship of this
open art competition / exhibition.
- ING has been supporting this exhibition every year since 1999!
- This makes it one of the longest corporate art sponsorships in the UK
At a time when art competitions are fast disappearing off the scene (Sunday
Times Watercolour / Lynn Painter-Stainers / BP Portrait Award) it's really
great to see a commitment to continued sponsorship.
In part I think it comes because the ING have
their own art collection
in their UK Offices at 60 London Wall in the City of London, which I've been
privileged to see - see my 2011 post about
The ING Art Collection. I'm not surprised that back in 2016
ING’s art collection wins Corporate Art Awards. As a Dutch Bank it has also sponsored the Rijksmuseum since 2005.
The ING Collection is a living, evolving collection that is constantly questioning its relationship to art and its boundaries. It is a modern collection that reflect ING’s international, contemporary and innovative character. It reflects the figurative tradition of ING in an experimental and new way.
For me, a commitment to art by a sponsor is a very good indication of whether
or not the sponsorship is likely to be enduring. It also says something about
the nature of the organisation.
Art and culture have always been important to us and we believe in the power of art to inspire, make connections, and portray times we live in. Through our partnership, it’s our privilege to support emerging artists and make art accessible to collectors in the UK and beyond.
The Discerning Eye Collection
The Discerning Eye aims to encourage wider conversations around the understanding and appreciation of the visual arts.The main focus of the organisation is the annual exhibition - but has also expanded into other activities.
- the website now includes an archive of images of every artwork shown at every ING Discerning Eye exhibition.
- The Discerning Eye Collection has been developed using the annual Founder’s Purchase Prize and includes artworks by some of the UK's leading artists - many of home have featured as prizewinners in various exhibitions.
- they created the Drawing Eye Bursary
- exhibitions have also been held at the Temple Church
- an online exhibition was set up in response to the constraints caused during the pandemic
However during 2021, they have diversified into providing online webinars for artists - delivered via Instagram.
You can see the recording of the last
LIVE TALK on How to promote your work as an artist on Instagram
The next
LIVE TALK on Instagram
is on Wednesday this week at 5pm
Instagram LIVE TALK for artists: 'Working with a gallery' 🆕
🗓 When? Wednesday, 16 November from 5pm UK.
Tune in on the day or catch up after on our page.
We are delighted to have @cynthia_corbett, Director of
@cynthiacorbettgallery and Elspeth Edmondson, Director of @thewhispergallery answering your questions
ING Discerning Eye Exhibition
The ING Discerning Eye annual exhibition is a show of small, domestic scale, works independently selected by six prominent figures from different areas of the art world: two artists, two collectors and two critics.
I wrote about the Call for Entries for this Exhibition back in July -
see Call for Entries: ING Discerning Eye Annual Exhibition 2022
Last year I was none too impressed by the technological aspects of the
exhibition - see
Cons and Pros of ING Discerning Eye Exhibition's tech makeover - and I'll wait to I get to the exhibition to comment on any issues
re accessing information about the artwork this year.
On to what the Exhibition involves....
- just under 6% of the open call artworks submitted made it through to the exhibition.
- around about 11% of the open call artists who submitted had artwork selected - which is a very respectable percentage
- i.e. 107 artworks by 34 artists were invited NOT selected.
The Selectors are normally split into Collectors, Critics and Artists - but
other than the latter I'm not entirely sure which is which.
- Alison Bevan, RWA Director
- Gurinder Chadha, Film director
- Aindrea Emelife, Curator
- Kate Enters, ArtCan Director
- David Ferry, Artist and RE President
- Ansel Krut, Artist
Each Selector mounts their own exhibition within the different
galleries at the Mall Galleries and shows the work they want to. If you click the link to Selectors and then image of the selector
on https://www.discerningeye.org/2022 then you can see the artwork
they selected.e
Getting to the final selection was incredibly painful - it was so hard to choose between such a wealth of great art! In the end I chose work in the same way that I select artwork for my own home: does it light a personal spark, and would it reward spending time with? I also considered how each fitted with my invited artists, who are a small cross-section of RWA Academicians and Artists' Network members, all of whose work I personally love. Alison Bevan
 |
| some of the artwork selected by Alison Bevan |
All artwork in the exhibition MUST BE within the maximum size
limit of 20 inches (50cm) including frame.
That means lots of artworks - but they're all small. Many of them are
also very affordable.
Artists can also submit up to six artworks - and it's always
really interesting to see which were the artists that the selectors were
competing over - as in the artist ends up in two or more selectors
exhibitions
You can also see the online exhibition in its entirety via https://www.discerningeye.org/shop
Note that this page states
"To explore this year's catalogue either scroll down to view the
entire selection or search for a particular artist, title or
medium"
but I can't see how you do this since all those filters are missing from
the menu of filter options!
Awards
This is the Instagram reel of the announcement of the awards. I can't see
anything on the website as yet as to who won what.....
REFERENCE
Website: https://www.discerningeye.org/2022
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ingdiscerningeye/
Online Exhibition: https://www.discerningeye.org/shop Artworks will be available to browse and buy online until 31
December 2022.
Exhibition Venue:
Mall Galleries The Mall London SW1 - North, East & West Galleries
Dates: 11 - 10 November 2022
Hours: 10am - 5pm
Admission: FREE
Demonstrations:
- Tuesday 15 November - Jane Dickins and Paul Trussell
- Wednesday 16 November - Elizabeth Meek and Rae Birch
- Thursday 17 November - Tony Anderson and Guglielmo Alfarone
- Friday 18 November - Thomas Cameron
- Saturday 19 November - Annam Butt
- Sunday 20 November - Paul Regan and Shirley Cullum
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