The husband and I are debating exactly what is meant by a cohesive body of work in regards to the photos that need to be submitted as part of the application process. We seem to have different ideas on what this means. I have attached 2 sets of photos depicting what we each think this means. Which set of photos do you think best fulfills this requirement?
**These are not professional photos. They were taken on my sofa with horrible lighting.
Thanks for your input!
Replies
I think that just showing sunsets would be somewhat limiting. if you just show sunsets, I think that will sit in the jurors minds when it comes to culling artists. I like the potential of varied subjects using the same technique.
The sunsets as a theme are a cliché. I'd mix some of them with the other pieces.
Larry Berman
I think that Sunset works a little more cohesively than mixed.
This is all very helpful feedback! Thank you so much.
My jury would prefer to see a mixture of both. I think your pieces are all cohesive in that the style and technique is the same.
Just for general information, they (our jury at least) expect to see the breadth of your work in the images and it should represent what you will bring to the show. While I don't see this happening in your case because of the overall cohesiveness, it's very harmful to your score if they see 3-4 similar works in the image shots, and then they see the booth shot which contains other pieces not represented (at least stylistically) in those images. It causes confusion. They try and figure out what those other pieces look like which never goes well in a booth shot. They assume you are going to bring lots of work they weren't shown. They basically don't know what they'll get if they jury you in and they tend to score based on what they like least.
What show jury are you talking about???
Thank you for providing feedback from a judges viewpoint. Especially about the booth photo.
We are creating pieces that are larger 24x24 and 36x36 that will not be as colorful, in addition to live edge cedar pieces. I've attached a couple of pictures. The 24x24 is unfinished but this is the color it will be. This represents the higher end pieces. Is this still cohesive?
My question is, should these be included in the individual shots and then a mixture in the booth shot?
24x24.jpg
cedar coat rack 24in.jpg
St. James Court Art Show
I think you choose a variety of pieces that best show your style and technique, and also the breadth of your line. You won’t be able to show an example of every variation. If you show diversity within the image shots though, it will be obvious that you will bring lots of different types of pieces and your booth shot will show that they tie together stylistically. If you show 5 shots of sunsets, it will be assumed that all you will bring is sunsets. If the jury doesn’t respond well to the sunsets specifically, you haven’t given them anything else to look at. The bottom line for us is that the pieces you show and the booth shot need to communicate that all the work was clearly done by the same artist, and are identifiable as work done by that artist. The booth shot needs to tie together the individual images, and represent accurately what you will bring to the show.
Keep in mind that every jury is different, and the formula is as elusive as the meaning of life. My jury is pulled from a consistent pool and they all are immersed in the show enough to know what we are looking for. Other shows might invite a different set of artists, gallery owners, instructors etc. every time, and results will vary accordingly. A gallery owner or teacher’s idea of cohesiveness isn’t going to be the same as an artist or director at an art show.
I can say with certainty though, that some of the biggest complaints from the show side on jury submissions are incomplete information, images that don’t relate to the booth and vice versa, and images that don’t accurately depict what the artist actually brings, either in style or scale. (Nothing worse than a booth full of mugs when you juried in with museum quality sculpture.) Hopefully this helps a little. Good Luck!!
Thanks for posting this! I needed to know the answer to this question too.
The photos with the sunset seem to flow better in my opinion
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next