DEREK BRUECKNER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDV7ByAsr4Q

Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude for being asked to jury for the MB Society of Artists’ 2020 Open Juried Competition & Exhibition and wish to congratulate all the artists involved with this exhibition and to everyone currently involved in this long-standing Manitoba cultural organization. As a juror for this year’s MB Society of Artists Online Exhibition I was fortunate to view a wide range of works from the Manitoba community. As most people know, due to the COVID pandemic this year’s artists and jurors were designated to a digital submissions process. As one of the jurors, I tried with all my abilities to imagine each work submitted in situ as I viewed every single image.

During this jury process many works caught my attention for various and diverging reasons. Some of my selections conflicted between artists who experimented with materials in uniquely expressionistic ways, and other artists depicting subject matter with an extremely enhanced technical knowledge of materials. As I ranked each work I wondered if the other juror Erika Dueck had similar selection struggles to mine. 

In grappling with the huge number of qualified submissions (approximately 142 submitted works) I had an overwhelming feeling to make sure the jury process was fair and transparent as possible. I strived to balance my rankings between technical execution, formal qualities, uniquely expressive subject matter, along with experimental approaches to art making and progressive thinking in relation to thematic content.

Of course, this balanced approached to ranking the huge amount of submitted art works was never easy. Regrettably, there were people left out, due to the limited number of works that we (the two jurors) could select. It is my hope for those artists’ work not selected for this round of submissions that they were not discouraged but instead will continue to submit work for future juried exhibitions.

As part of my need to be as transparent as possible I offer here a summarized list of ideas and approaches that connected with me in the submitted work. Those ideas and approaches include:

Finally, I would like to thank my co-juror Erika Dueck who is also an accomplished artist, and educator. When Erika and I eventually met to share, compile, and discuss our individual rankings Erika demonstrated strong conceptual intellect, a diverse range of formal awareness, acute mental stamina, and enormous organizational skills for reviewing and compiling our rankings. I would also like to acknowledge the unofficial 3rd juror Josiah (Erika’s newborn son) who intermittently joined us during the jury process. Unexpectedly Josiah was yet another example of the community range involved in this year’s exhibition. Collectively it was such a pleasure to work with Erika and to meet Josiah for the first time via a jury process on Zoom.

As we move forward hoping for a better future and knowing we will all eventually be looking back on experiences of a vicious pandemic that brought pain, conflict, uncertainty, and loss for so many people. Once we shift into a post-pandemic society, I hope the people of Manitoba can continue to critically see the arts as having the potential to create and sustain cultural change and to make various aspects of the world better.

Analytically and cautiously optimistic,
Derek Brueckner

ERIKA DUECK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBmV6CegUak

To begin, I’d like to express how honoured I am to help adjudicate this year’s OJCE submissions. It was wonderful to see the large number of artworks along with the varied approaches, subject matters, and materials. As I looked through the various submissions, I found that I used a similar criterion to evaluate different aspects of the artwork that I also use when grading student work as a sessional instructor at the University of Manitoba’s School of Art. The three main criterion I focused on for this competition were Technical Execution, Elements of Design, and Experimentation.

There were many submissions that demonstrated a high level of technical mastery, from artworks that explored realistic imagery, sculptures that required finesse and skill to form, and everything in between that showed attention to detail, or brush handling, and an overall ability to manipulate the material at hand. Technical Execution is often one of the first things that grabs a viewer’s attention, and without a mastery over technique and material manipulation, an artist cannot always fully realize the artworks within their imagination. It is important to build technical skills as an artist, and often that means practicing using one of the main tools artists use: their hands. Some people are born with a certain amount of natural ability, but the encouraging thing is we are all able to improve with focused practice. For artists hoping to create artworks that seem too difficult and outside their skill-level – don’t be discouraged. Dive in, take on the difficult tasks, and remember that practice takes time and repetition. Once you begin this process you can eventually look back at previous attempts and realize how much you’ve developed and grown. The skills you learn in one area often help you to improve in others, so take heart!

The second criterion, Elements of Design, involves the aesthetics of an artwork and includes elements such as composition, colour, contrast, and texture. All of these elements should work together cohesively and be considered carefully since they immediately begin communicating messages to the viewer about the work. For example, while one artwork’s balanced composition may bring a calming, stable interpretation of the imagery, another composition can imply a sense of movement, chaos, or uncertainty. Once we add elements of colour, light/dark, and texture, it can complicate our understandings of an artwork. Often while making an artwork we can get into tunnel vision and become completely engrossed, which means we may not be looking at the artwork in its entirety. One of the simple ways to improve an artwork in terms of the Elements of Design is to set up the artwork at a distance and spend time just looking at it. At a distance, do certain elements end up being washed out? Or perhaps the colours and tones are all within the same value range so there’s not enough contrast as everything ends up blending together. Let your eyes explore the artwork as though you’re looking at it for the first time. Do your eyes get ‘stuck’ and continually drawn to a certain part of the work instead of flowing seamlessly from one element to the next?

Finally, I looked at Experimentation. There are many ways to demonstrate Experimentation in an artwork, from exploring imagery and compositions that are unusual and surprising, to using materials that are unconventional. Experimentation can be difficult because it feels safer to create work that is familiar. However, one of the exciting benefits of experimentation is that artworks begin to move in directions that challenge us as viewers and makers because we haven’t experienced anything like it before. The work requires renewed focus and risk-taking as we attempt to do something new. Experimentation also brings out the individuality of the artist’s voice instead of following clichés and standard approaches. The artworks that surprise and challenge us as viewers are often the ones that stay within our memories the longest as they rattle around in our minds and keep us curious, questioning, and engaged. As a result, my biggest encouragement to artists wanting to ‘set themselves apart from the pack’ is to experiment endlessly. Before beginning an artwork, do sketches exploring 20 or more different compositions.  Sometimes our first impulse is the most common approach and spending time doing quick sketches challenges us to push beyond. Play with different materials, brush strokes, techniques. Make up your own approaches based on the materials you have on hand. If you find yourself continually following a certain rule, try to push against it and do something completely different. Play in the studio and continue experimenting with reckless abandon!

Congratulations to all the winners and participants of the show! Whether or not your work was chosen, keep applying for opportunities and taking on the brave decision to share your work with others. It’s tough to put yourself out there, but it’s worth the risk when your work connects with someone else and provokes discussion and new ideas.