January 15–March 10, 2017
Exhibition On View
August 5–October 7, 2017
The Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans is pleased to invite contemporary visual artists to submit to the 2017 Open Call for Submissions. Artists who live, show work, or have held an artist residency (during the 2016 calendar year) in New Orleans or the surrounding region (within 200 miles of New Orleans city limits) are eligible to apply.
Please review Important Dates and Eligibility & General Guidelines
IMPORTANT: There are two (2) sections for submissions. The first section is for “CAC Members Only.” The second section is for “Non-CAC Members.” Please be sure to submit to your appropriate section to ensure eligibility.
For Non-CAC Members: In appreciation for your participation in this year’s open call, as a gift you will receive a one-year complimentary CAC Artist Membership.
No phone calls or emails will be accepted. Thank you.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
As a port city, New Orleans has long served as a departure, respite, or destination point for artists, intellectuals, merchants, and romantics. As we celebrate the three hundred year history as a city of journeymen, we recognize our own history in global patterns of geographic mobility. From refugees fleeing conflict, or facing oppression and natural disasters, to immigrants seeking opportunities and freedoms in new regions, the nomad presents as contemporary archetype.
And with him, across national borders and difficult passageways, (s)he brings mementos. Despite, or perhaps because of, their fragility, these objects accrue heightened significance as carriers of cultural and personal history. They serve as signifiers of ethnic, religious, and regional association, transmitting memories of particular landscapes and traditions.
This exhibition presents the work of artists who examine the relationships of objects— which hold importance beyond their physical form—to experiences of places and cultural identities. Artists are asked to submit works that evoke their own sense of emotionality, sacredness, and personal connection to their cultures and beliefs through objects found and made. When faced with conflict or duress, what sacred objects or physical memories would be the first in hand and tucked away for safekeeping? What forms serve to tell your cultural story to the next generation? What is the history communicated by your chosen medium? Are objects singular and distinctly self-reflective, or do they portray individual history as copy, reproduction, or commodity in a global economy of exchange? How do histories of colonization and cultural domination figure in the objects with which we most closely identify?
This exhibition is organized by the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, and curated by Aaron Levi Garvey.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Sydney & Walda Besthoff Foundation, The Helis Foundation, the Greater New Orleans Foundation, and the Welch Family Fund in memory of Walter Wade Welch.
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Aaron Levi Garvey is an Independent Curator, museum professional, writer, lecturer, and arts consultant, who has worked on a multitude of platforms within the public, private, and corporate arts community, both nationally and internationally. Garvey’s ability to coordinate the details of artist, donor, and curator interactions has led to the mounting of numerous exhibitions within both museums and alternative spaces.
Throughout his career Garvey has worked closely with notable artists such as Ryoji Ikeda, Tameka Norris, Gamaliel Rodriguez, Natalie Krick, Rashaad Newsome, Jonah Bokaer, Alec Soth, and Rachel Rossin, to name a few. He has contributed essays, texts, interviews, and lectures on contemporary art’s culture and its market through various outlets. In late 2014, he was selected as an Evaluator for Creative Capital’s 2015 Visual Arts Grant Award review panel. Currently, Garvey sits as the guest curator of exhibitions at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Museum of Art. Some of his select upcoming 2016–17 exhibits include Saya Woolfalk’s To Dream The Electric Dream, and Jose Davila’s Primary Structures—a Chiharu Shiota site-specific installation. Most recently, Garvey has curated and written the catalog for We Are What You Eat, the inaugural art exhibition at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, which opened in early May 2016 and co-curated the Atlanta Biennial (ATLBNL): Recent Correspondence at the Atlanta Contemporary in August 2016.
In addition to his continued work within museums, foundations, universities, and private collections, Garvey has recently relocated to Florida and begun work on founding a residency program and edition publishing house. Still in the early phases, and having concluded their fourth residency, the program fosters an environment for both emerging and established artists to work on experimental projects, publish unique editions, and host community engagements.