Review: ING Discerning Eye 2025

Last Thursday I went to see the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition at the Mall Galleries - on my four art exhibitions on one day extravaganza! (The feet have told me not to do it again!)

The event celebrates a wide range of art media, from print to sculptures, from all regions across the UK. The exhibition celebrates small works, and so entries must have a maximum height of 50cm including framework

Three different exhibits of the six which make up the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2025

I've been covering the ING Discerning Eye exhibition since 2007 and every year it's a pleasure to see the huge range of small artworks hanging in the three galleries.

This year the open entry has been impressive and very big and you'll never ever see as much artwork in these galleries as you will in this exhibition!

Below you can find out about:

• The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition - and why it is different from any other exhibition you will ever see
• The Six Exhibitions - by six different selectors
• how to see the exhibition

(but not the prizes....)

About ING Discerning Eye Exhibition

All works must be within the maximum size limit of 50cm including frame.

Like most decent art competitions these days, it has

• a reputable backer The Discerning Eye is a visual arts focused educational charity. Its principal activity is to hold a rather unique annual exhibition
• the exhibition is sponsored by ING Bank. Hence it is known as the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition.
• offers prizes - including the ING Purchase Prize, worth £5,000. Awards will be given out to the winners in a prize giving at the start of the exhibition.
• been running since 1999.

The three key differences are:

• ALL the artwork is small
• the six selectors change every year AND each selector curates their own exhibition. In effect, there are six small exhibitions across the three galleries at the Mall Galleries by:
• two artists - 
• two curators
• two collectors
• The selectors are solely responsible for their own selection; selection is not by committee.
• Selectors can also invite artists to exhibit 
• The balance of their exhibit comes from selecting artwork via the open entry AND the selectors must choose at least 33% of their section from the open submission.

Personally speaking - having browbeaten most of the FBA Societies into understanding that if you are going to call something an open exhibition, then you need to have a very significant proportion from the open entry. (ASA regulation | The UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code) etc.) They got the point - they cannot be misleading!

• I intially suggested two thirds member / one third open
• most are now near 50:50 - which has been a shot in the arm for all those with aging members who'd like to be able to paint less and need new members!

Sadly ING has not yet tightened up on their advertising of this art competition - and still need to address this.

More than 730 artworks by 529 artists have been selected from a staggering 6,500 entries, reflecting the breadth and vibrancy of contemporary British art.

REALLY?  All selected from the open entry???

Anyway - enough of important technicalities....

Members Preview  

I attended a Members Preview - which is a new venture by the Mall Galleries - and one which I very much hope will be repeated. 

ING Discerning Eye 2024 Exhibition

The ING Discerning Eye 2024 Exhibition is currently on at the Mall Galleries in London and I visited last Friday. 

Unlike other exhibitions, five days later there's nothing much which comes to mind when trying to recall it - apart from a few pieces which were standout ones for me. That's essentially because it is overloaded with small artworks but maybe something else as well.....

paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture in the ING Discerning Eye 2024

The exhibition is unique because of the way it is put together.

Six people - two artists, two critics and two art collectors - pick what they like best from the open entry and also get to exhibit artwork by artists they like. 

The selectors this year are listed below - together with some views of their individual exhibits

You can also see the exhibition online - by selector. I'm putting the link underneath each pic of their exhibit below

Artists

• Adebanji Alade - current President of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters; he also features regularly on the BBC’s The One Show
• Nina Murdoch - She trained at the Slade School of Fine Art (1989-93) and at the Royal Academy Schools (1993-96), and was the winner of the inaugural Threadneedle Prize (2008).

part of the exhibit by Adebanji Alade (134 artworks)
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/adebanji-alade/

part of the exhibit by Nina Murdoch (105 artworks)
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/nina-murdoch/
(who had the most difficult and fragmented space - next to the cafe)

Critics

• Paul Carey-Kent - he has weekly column for FAD art news, does monthly interviews for Artlyst and freelances for various art news publications. This is his blog post about the exhibition and his chosen artworks
  
• Will Gompertz - an English journalist, author and art critic. He was the BBC's arts editor before becoming he Barbican Centre's Artistic Director in June 2021 and the director of the Sir John Soane’s Museum in 2024.

part of the exhibit by Paul Carey-Kent (119 artworks) in the North Gallery
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/paul-carey-kent/

part of the exhibit by Will Gompertz (107 artworks) at the end of the West Gallery
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/will-gompertz/

Collectors

• Carol Leonard - has been dubbed the ‘doyenne of boardroom head-hunters’ by the Financial Times.
• Gabrielle Blackman - one of the country's leading interior designers.

two walls of the exhibit by Carol Leonard (115 artworks) in the East Gallery
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/carol-leonard/

part of the exhibit by Gabrielle Blackman (124 artworks)
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/gabrielle-blackman/

What seemed very weird to me this year is that I found it quite difficult to distinguish between the individual selectors - with the exception of Will Gometz and Paul Carey-Kent - who happen to be the art critics - who both produced quite distinctive "looks" to their two exhibitions. 

Who knew it would be the art critics who would present me with the best visual experience?

Lessons from this Exhibition 

The thing about this exhibition, which is its unique distinction - a wealth of small artwork - is also what makes it very difficult to view on occasion.

I usually come out feeling as if I've just had a visual overload.  But there's overload and then there's indigestion.

Call for Entries: ING Discerning Eye 2024

I've been covering the ever popular and unusual ING Discerning Eye 2024 exhibition for years. 

In 2024, the exhibition will be 

• at the Mall Galleries from Friday 15 to Sunday 24 November 2024 and 
• unsold work will remain online until the 1 January 2024 - making it available for all those looking for small artwork presents for Christmas!

ING Discerning Eye 2023
small 2D artworks on the wall and small 3D artworks on the plinths

About the ING Discerning Eye

Like most decent art competitions, it has 

• a reputable backer 
• The Discerning Eye is a visual arts focused educational charity. Its principal activity is to hold a rather unique annual exhibition 
• the exhibition is sponsored by ING Bank. Hence it is known as the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition.
• offers prizes - including the ING Purchase Prize, worth £5,000. Awards will be given out to the winners in a prize giving at the start of the exhibition.
• been running since 1999.

I've been covering it since 2007. (You can find blog posts - and sketches - on this blog going back to 2007 - see below!) In that time, I've also seen artists who have done well in this exhibition do well subsequently e.g. gallery representation! It's a really great way of getting noticed.

Visual language 
(some may recognise the model - at the 2007 ING Discerning Eye exhibition)
8" x 11", pencil and coloured pencil in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

So what makes it different?

What's different about the ING Discerning Eye Competition and Exhibition?

The three key differences are:

• ALL the artwork is small
• the six selectors change every year AND each selector curates their own exhibition. In effect, there are six small exhibitions across the three galleries at the Mall Galleries by:
• two artists
• two curators
• two collectors

The selectors are solely responsible for their own selection; selection is not by committee.

• Selectors can also invite artists to exhibit as well as selecting artwork via the open entry BUT the selectors must choose at least 33% of their section from the open submission.

The exhibition comprises both publicly submitted works and works independently selected by six prominent figures from different areas of the art world: two artists, two collectors and two critics. Each section is hung separately to give each its own distinctive identity. The impression emerges of six small exhibitions within the whole.

I'd add a fourth difference. The implication of artwork being small is one might expect it to be also more affordable.  Artists who price high, for no good reason (eg having sold at that price regularly in the past being the best one) will just incur costs and are unlikely to sell.

You can see the standard of the artwork included in last year's exhibition in albums on my Facebook Page

ING Discerning Eye 2023

• Artwork chosen by: Eliza Gluckman Chris Levine Ian 'H' Watkins
• Artwork chosen by: Julian Wild, Tony Adams

Who can enter?

The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition is open to artists resident in the UK only.

What can you enter?

All works must be 

• an original creation by the artist
• within the maximum size limit of 50cm including frame.
• for sale.

Acceptable artwork/media includes paintings, drawings prints (including prints from i-pad drawings), photographs, and sculptures.

Work previously submitted is inadmissible. 

How to enter

Review: ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2023

The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2023 opened to the public last Friday - when I visited. This is a review of what I found - but first some facts about this very unusual exhibition and how it works - and who are the six selectors who have created six very different exhibits in 2023

(This post has been updated since it was first published with respect to the number of entries, selected works and artists - see below)

The end of the West Gallery featured a lot of sculpture and 3D works.
I couldn't quite work out whether these all related to just one selector
as the names of the artists suggested not.....

At a time when sponsorship is being withdrawn and art competitions are dying on their feet, ING are to be very much applauded 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

Since it began in 1999, 11,000 works by 4,000 artists have been exhibited, £290,000 has been awarded in prize money, and over £1 million worth of art has been sold on behalf of the artists

The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition

The Discerning Eye is a visual arts focused educational charity. Its principal activity is to hold a rather unique annual exhibition sponsored by the bank ING - and hence it is known as the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition.

Ian Watkin's Exhibit

What's special about this exhibition is that it is:

• an annual show of small-scale works - which are all for sale
• chosen by two artists, two art collectors and two critics / people who have art-related occupations
  
• as a result, there are six different exhibits - one for each of the selectors
• while 25% of each exhibits MUST come from the open entry, the selectors are also able to invite artists they like to exhibit their work
• it's a good opportunity for 
• emerging artists to get their work seen, appreciated and exhibited - albeit in a small way!
• artists whose work may not always please ALL the selectors!

Within each selection works from, as yet lesser known artists, hang alongside pieces by those who are more established or internationally recognised.

The exhibition is 

• open daily 10am - 5pm in all three galleries at the Mall Galleries in London
• it closes on Sunday 26th November at 1pm

You can also VIEW EACH EXHIBIT ONLINE

Plus I am going to be uploading my photographs of the exhibition to an album on my Making A Mark Facebook Page.

• 

  ING Discerning Eye 2023

  38 items
• 

  ING Discerning Eye 2023 (Part 2)

  37 items

I've included representative ones of each exhibit in this review.

Part of the Exhibit by Chris Levine in the North Gallery
- probably the most curated and gallery like of them all in terms of presentation

The 2023 Curators

Links embedded in the selectors name are to their ONLINE EXHIBIT.

(Quite why the URL for each exhibit bears absolutely no relationship to the selector's name is beyond me - but is the sort of thing I notice!)

Artists

• Chris Levine, a luminary in light art, 
• Julian Wild, an accomplished sculptor, 

Curator/ Critics

• Péjú Oshin, a distinguished curator, currently Associate Director at Gagosian
• Eliza Gluckman, Director of the Government Art Collection

Eliza Gluckman - part of her exhibition in the East Gallery

Art Collectors

• Ian "H" Watkins one of the singers in Steps who is passionate about painting
• Tony Adams - former Arsenal and England football captaiN.

The exhibit by Tony Adams - in the West Gallery

My review

My reviews tend to focus on a lot of practical aspects and things of interest to artists wanting to be selected for the exhibition, visitors to the exhibition and those whose wanting to buy. These are all summed up below in 

• what I liked
• what I disliked 

That's not to say I don't have an opinion on the art - but it is so diverse and eclectic it's difficult to have a coherent view about the artwork itself

Call for Entries: ING Discerning Eye 2023

The ever popular ING Discerning Eye 2023 exhibition will be at the Mall Galleries from 17 to 26 November 2023, and online until the 31 December 2023.

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.

ING Discerning Eye 2022

What you need to know

The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition

The only restrictions on the exhibition are that 

• 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.

In 2023, the exhibition will be 

• 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.

The Discerning Eye is a visual arts focused educational charity. 

• 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.

• 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.

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

Each selector's chosen artworks are hung in a dedicated area of the Galleries and hence you get a chance to see whether the selector has 

• 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 means

Prizes

There are a range of prizes and in this era of disappearing art competitions, it's worth noting that some are valuable.

In 2023, the prizes are valued at £14,000 - including

• 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

If you have not submitted before - or if you have submitted but not been selected, you can read more about past exhibitions and see the sort of artwork this exhibition attracts:

• 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!

Call for Entries: ING Discerning Eye 2023

Images from ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2022 plus Prizes

I viewed the six different displays of small artworks selected by six different selectors for the ING Discerning Eye 2022 Exhibition at the Mall Galleries yesterday. 

My general impression was that much of the content was better than in previous years - while some still had me wondering about "what is taste?" in art and even "what is art?"!

The Different Displays

I've done two things after getting home

• uploaded albums of my photos of the various displays to my Making A Mark Facebook Page. 
• The artwork which caught my eye and/or I liked the best gets singled out - and the artwork and artist named.

The link in the name is to my Facebook albums. 

The second link to the number of artworks is to the website gallery version on the ING Discerning Eye website. You can then compare the digital image version with what it looks like on the wall.

• East Gallery: Kate Enters ArtCan Director - Selected Artwork - 93 artworks - this was the display that most impressed me, in terms of amount of artwork I liked.
• North Gallery: Aindrea Emelife, Curator - 103 artworks - included some interesting works and a blast from my past
• West Gallery 
• Ansel Krut, Artist - 68 artworks - the smallest exhibition
• Gurinder Chadha, Film director - 108 artworks - very much dominated by images of people
• Alison Bevan, RWA Director - 102 artworks I also liked a lot in this exhibit
• David Ferry, Artist and RE President - 89 artworks - included as one might expect quite a few original prints

One of the things you may find interesting as you look at the artwork is to see which artworks have sold - bearing in mind that the exhibition had been open for a week - since 11 November - when I saw it on 18 November. Keen collectors tend to buy online or early on in an exhibition.

I saw quite a few sales. I also saw quite a really silly prices. In future, I think some artists need to remember that we are now in a recession and won't be coming out of it for quite a long time.

Never ever forget 'Affordable Art' sells well! Small works are a great opportunity to create affordable art.

Prizes and Awards

Interestingly on the IMG Discerning Eye website the awards are not matched up with images of the awards. However if you click the link that takes you to the dedicated page for that artwork. 

The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2022

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

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ING Discerning Eye Exhibition (@ingdiscerningeye)

 

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....

Out of 7,300 entries from 2,900 artists, 420 works from 325 artists were selected from the open call for the ING Discerning Eye 2022 exhibition. That means 

• 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

There are 527 artworks by 359 artists in the complete exhibition - as some artists are INVITED by the selectors rather than selected from the open call.

• 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.....

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ING Discerning Eye Exhibition (@ingdiscerningeye)

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

Call for Entries: ING Discerning Eye Annual Exhibition 2022

The Discerning Eye is a visual arts focused educational charity. Its principal activity is to hold a rather unique annual exhibition sponsored by ING - and known as the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition. 

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 ING Discerning Eye Exhibition

ING Discerning Eye 2021: View of the West Gallery

Six Selectors

Once a year they invite 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 selectors this year are:

• David Ferry - Printmaker
• Ansel Krut - Painter
• Gurinder Chadha - Film Director
• Kate Enters - Director of Artcan
• Aindrea Emelife - Curator and Writer
• Alison Bevan Director of the Royal West of England Academy

The selectors:

• invite artists they know or whose work they admire 
• select artwork submitted via the open entry

Small Works

The other aspect which is unique is that this is an exhibition about small artworks. Details below of what that means

Prizes

There are a range of prizes and in this era of disappearing art competitions, it's worth noting that some are valuable. 

• ING Purchase Prize* – £5000
• The Discerning Eye Founder’s Purchase Prize** – In honour of Michael Reynold’s £2500
• The Discerning Eye Chairman’s Purchase Prize** – £1000
• The Mervyn Metcalf Purchase Prize* – £500
• Discerning Eye Sculpture and 3D Work Prize** – £250
• Discerning Eye Original Print Prize** – £250
• Discerning Eye Cityscape Prize** – £250
• Discerning Eye Landscape Prize** – £250
• Discerning Eye Portrait Prize** – £250
• Regional Prizes** – There will be up to 8 prizes of £250 each awarded to an outstanding entry from the national regions
• Parker Harris Mentoring Prize*: Parker Harris will give a one-to-one mentoring session covering all aspects of professional development to a selected artist

NOTE:

* These prizes are selected by the individual prize givers, not the selectors.
**These prizes are selected by members of the Discerning Eye Educational Board, not the selectors.

ING Discerning Eye 2021: North Gallery

The Exhibition 2022

The exhibition is to be held at the Mall Galleries in central London - from the 11th - 20th November 2022

The website also has a Virtual Exhibition of the artwork in the exhibition.

However......

This year I have an ALERT for all artists wishing to submit work - which I summed up in a facebook post last year. Nobody has written to me to say it's a "return to normal" hence why I'm raising this issue here.

I am giving the organisers the benefit of the doubt and assuming that last year this was an effort to reduce costs given there was no knowing whether the exhibition might have to be cancelled. 

However... it was, in my opinion, an absolutely ludicrous idea given that galleries do not have effective broadband reception throughout the galleries and not everybody likes to open their phone (and security!) to open access wifi!!! 

DO READ Cons and Pros of ING Discerning Eye Exhibition's tech makeover in which I voice my concerns at some length!

I sincerely hope the organisers are going back to proper professional practice of having:

• proper labels - stating names, titles, media and price
• a proper catalogue - including the same data which interested purchasers can consult and make notes as they go round.

I'm optimistic we've had a return to normal as the call for entries indicates the following

All exhibiting artists will be included in a fully illustrated print catalogue.

However I also work on the principle of I believe it when I see it - especially when it has such a significant impact on artists. Do feel free to enquire what's happening this year via the normal contacts. 

If you have not submitted before - or if you have submitted but not been selected, you can read more about past exhibitions and see the sort of artwork this exhibition attracts:

• 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

Welcome to The Discerning Eye Archives, here you can browse nearly 30 years of works exhibited annually. To start your search either select a year to view a full overview, or use the search bar to lookup particular artists, work titles or selectors.

The archive consists of nearly 15,000 selections, over the years we have expanded the data we store on individual works to include images, dimensions etc. However some earlier years may not have this information available.

Oddly it does NOT include images for the 2021 exhibition!!

Call for Entries: ING Discerning Eye 2022