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. (ING DE website)
- This post is about the call for entries for the 2022 Exhibition to be held at the Mall Galleries in November - and whats involved in submitting an entry or six!
- The deadline for entries to the 2023 ING Discerning Eye exhibition is Thursday 31 August 2023.
What you need to know
The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition
- all artwork must all be for sale,
- the artists must be UK based,
- artwork must be small - the size of the work can have a MAXIMUM measurement of 50cm in any one dimension
- artwork is chosen by six different people - two artists, two collectors and two critics / people who have art-related occupation
- the artwork exhibited by each selector comes from artists favoured by the selectors and works selected from the open entry
- the selectors must choose at least 25% of their section from the open submission.
- on display at the Mall Galleries between 16th and 26th November.
- plus a virtual gallery showcasing all the artists’ shortlisted works - with commentary and introductions by the selectors.
- Its principal activity is to hold a rather unique annual exhibition
- The Exhibition has been sponsored by ING since 1999 - and hence is known as the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition.
I'd like to start by applauding ING for their continued sponsorship of this open art competition / exhibition.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.
- ING has been supporting this exhibition every year since 1999!
- This makes it one of the longest corporate art sponsorships in the UK
The Selectors
Six Selectors
Once a year the organisers of the ING Discerning Eye exhibition invite six different people - two artists, two collectors and two critics / people who have art-related occupations - to select artwork to hang in the exhibition.Hence it's not an open exhibition where you have to please all the Jury of Selectors - you only need to please one!
The duties of the selectors are to:
- invite artists they know or whose work they admire
- select artwork submitted via the open entry
- a carefully curated or a very eclectic approach to what they like
- either embraces the open entry - or sticks very closely to the artwork they know and like with a minimum number of pieces chosen from the open entry
The 2023 Selectors are....
Two artists
- Chris Levine, Artist
- Julian Wild, Artist and Lecturer
Two art collectors
- Tony Adams, Former footballer and Collector
- Ian "H" Watkins, Singer and Collector
Two critics / people who have art-related occupation
- Peju Oshin, Critic, Curator, Writer and Lecturer
- Eliza Gluckman, Director, Government Art Collection
Small Works
The other aspect which is unique is that this is an exhibition about small artworks. Details below of what that meansPrizes
- ING Purchase Prize, £5,000
- The Discerning Eye Founder’s Prize - in honour of Michael Reynolds, £2,500
- The Drawing Bursary Prize, £1,500
- The Discerning Eye Chair’s Purchase Prize, £1,000
- The Mervyn Metcalf Purchase Prize, £500
- Parker Harris Prize: one year’s subscription to The Art Ladder mentoring programme for artists, and two one-to-one mentoring sessions, worth £600
- The Discerning Eye Sculpture Prize, £300
- The Discerning Eye Cityscape Prize, £300
- The Discerning Eye Landscape Prize, £300
- The Discerning Eye Portrait Prize, £300
- The Discerning Eye Print Prize, £300
- Regional Prizes, 7 prizes of £250 each awarded to an outstanding entry from the national regions
- Tabish Khan’s Critic Purchase Prize, £200
Those who have not entered before
- in my past blog posts reviewing the exhibition (see end of this post)
- in the archive of exhibitions on the Discerning Eye website - which has digitised all past exhibited work in every year back to 1990!