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Conversation with Jerry Gilmore
juror for 2011 Columbus
who has also juried Cherry Creek and St Louis |
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Columbus
open jury review |
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other art show
juror interviews and jury reviews |
Refreshing your art
My big thing, now that I’ve juried about ten shows and after seeing a lot
of artists over the years, is the idea of refreshing. The artist needs to
refresh their work. The jurors are always refreshed (change each year) and
then the director has to be concerned about what they’re doing to make the
audience feel refreshed when they attend the festival. The audience
doesn’t want to see the same artwork or they will blow it off like they’ve
seen it before and stop attending. |
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I know that it’s hard on the artist, especially those that may deal in
multiples that may be very appealing to people and have sold well over the
years. But I think that as an artist, you always have to replenish or
refresh your part of the bargain, so to speak. |
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Giving people a reason to attend
Giving artists the same prime spaces year after year is like the permanent
collections in a museum which is usually the same work. You walk through
the door and immediately think to yourself that you’ve been there before.
I think that is a hindrance to the art festival and to the artists. The
festival is entertainment and people can stay home just as easily and
watch things electronically. They don’t have to go anywhere anymore, and
sometimes prefer not to because of the economy. You don’t want to give
them reasons not to attend. |
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As a collector, if I’ve bought a piece from an artist and then I came back
a year or two later and saw the same piece, I would be offended, even
though I know it’s a multiple. It would be weird to see the same thing
over and over again, that you really didn’t buy something unique, only a
slice of the huge pie of one particular image. It’s a difficult question
and something that should be taught about on a national level. How do you
refresh yourself, refresh the judges, and refresh the festival. |
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How do you make the audience come and see something they’ve never seen
before? They’re going to see familiar artists but I think that so they
don’t see the same thing, there should be a turnover every couple of years
that you should have pretty much all new work. For most galleries and
museums, or if you apply to a grant from a foundation, the work can’t be
more than two years old. So for festivals, the work probably shouldn’t be
older than five years. You might have some older work in your booth but
you should never be able to get into a show with slides (images) that are
ten years old. If you’re not making new work by then, you’re hurting your
own reputation as an artist. There should be a natural progression as you
keep experimenting and that also keeps you alive as an artist. |
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Giving people a reason to buy - the story
I think that there’s some real quality in these festivals and I also
believe that artists do like the festivals more than dealing with
galleries and museums because you’re talking one on one with the person
who likes your work. Even if you don’t
make a sale that day, you still implanted something in that persons mind
about who you are as an artist. And when you see them again maybe next
year, they remember you and might bring back a friend. Sometimes it takes
two years to make a sale because the first year they just want to know who
you are. I’ve always believed that the best thing you can do for a patron
who buys one of your works is that they have a story to tell about you
when that piece is on their wall. It’s a wonderful transfer of the stories
from the artist to the collector and then to their friends. Then their
friends may come to meet you and tell you that so and so has one of your
pieces and now they want to buy something. It can be a slow process
building a quality sale. |
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What I’m looking for in the jury room
I’m looking for something that’s unique to me, something that I’ve never
seen before. I don’t give a lot of applause to someone who I know is
copying someone out of art history. There isn’t a lot of time when you
only have ten seconds, but I look for quality, uniqueness, and for me
every time I’ve juried, I try to put a sense of humor into the final show.
It could be child like, naive, or folk art. Something that’s going to put
a smile on someone’s face, a fun piece to look at. There’s lots of serious
artwork out there but I also believe festivals should have something for
everybody so when families attend, little kids can get excited when they
turn the corner and there’s those little robots or things like that. |
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On site jurying
I look for uniqueness. I’ve seen a lot of the same artists over and over,
but when we jury in person (at the festival) I want to see something in
their booth that I haven’t seen before. If it’s the same stuff than I
won’t consider them for an award. They could be the best artist in the
whole festival, but for me, I want to see them replenishing their ideas
and work. I want them to show me some of the new stuff that they’ve done.
If I’ve seen their work before, I would love to see growth and new work to
get me excited. What artists may not understand is that, at the better
shows, there are a lot of judges that travel all over the country. When
you see enough of the top art festivals, you may see a high percentage of
the artists repeatedly, so I want to see something different. I grew up in
art so I’m looking for things that really floor me. Most of the awards
I’ve given out over the years when I’ve been a judge are not to the most
common people you would think of in the festival. They are people who are
really pushing the envelope. |
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Multiples printed on canvas
There was a discussion about photographs printed on canvas. The discussion
didn’t sway me. I wasn’t bothered by price points or what it was printed
on. I was only interested in whether it was original to me or not. Canvas
is a new media. David Hockney built a xerox machine and now he Xeroxes his
canvases through it. He’s a major artist and he did this a long time ago.
He’ll paint a painting and make twenty images on it because he’ll Xerox
it. |
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Prices in the jury room
I don’t care what things cost. That’s up to the artist. If you price your
work too high, you’re going to find that out when you get to the festival
and people may say “great work, but we can’t afford it.” You’ll learn that
lesson. But you shouldn’t be taught that lesson by someone who’s saying
that you can’t sell $5,000 pieces. Maybe you could, but you only have to
sell one or two of them. I feel that idea of judging a piece of artwork on
what it cost is wrong, because there are pieces of artwork on cardboard
that are going to disintegrate but people are still buying them for
hundreds of thousands of dollars. I don’t believe that as a juror, I
should be putting any cost on anything. It’s what’s in front of me. Do I
like it? Is it a fine piece of artwork? Do I think it has merit? Value is
not my concern. |
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There's a lot of great art out there
There are a lot of artists that deal in the avant-garde in the festivals.
For maybe 20% of the artists, if you took them out of the festivals and
isolated their work in a museum or major gallery, they would just pop.
Sometimes the booths are so crowded you can’t see the good from the trees. |
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Jerry Gilmore has juried Cherry Creek twice, St Louis, Milwaukee
Lakefront, Columbus, Vail, Telluride and Crested Butte twice. He received
his BA in Fiber and Painting from Western Washington University and his
MFA in Painting and Drawing from Washington State University. Gilmore has
served as the director/curator at Arvada Center for the Arts and
Humanities in Colorado, and prior to that was the executive
director/curator at the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art. He is
currently an independent curator, visual artist and writer. |
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