We are living through a tumultuous period in history. The world is beginning to return to a new normal after years of a global pandemic, Russia has invaded Ukraine, women’s rights are being restricted nationally and globally, and nationalists seem to be rising in power in many parts of the world. Though the world seems to be going through a particularly volatile period, we believe this can lead to avibrant moment of creative expression. We chose our theme, ‘Here & Now, Signs of the Time’ because we feel that the pressing issues around us present an opportunity to forge human connections.
AdornAxis asked artists from around the world to submit work showing us where they are now, either mentally or physically, and what inspires them during this particular period in history we are currently living through. We wanted to know what issues are they most passionate about? What do they feel represents the society we are currently living in? We were hoping to gain insight into the lives of people around the world, and the submissions we received did not disappoint us.
We feel strongly about including artists from everywhere, in every social and economic situation, in every sage of their career. As it happens, during the time we were putting this exhibition together, we received more requests for special consideration (in regard to our submission fee) as a result of world events than any of our previous calls for entry. On one particular day, we woke up to find an email from an artist in Iran who missed our deadline because all of the internet had been disabled in his country due to the violent protests as a result of the death of Masha Amini, a woman who was protesting Iran’s hijab laws. This email exchange, however brief, strengthened our passion for this exhibition. What makes curating AdornAxis exhibitions meaningful for us is that it not only gives us the ability to connect with people in all walks of life, but also allows us to help facilitate connecting their work to the world.
We received 160 applications from 40 countries around the globe, and spent 3 days immersed in the submissions. We began by looking at the images while we read aloud the short statement that each artist was asked to provide explaining how their work fits into our theme. At one point we both needed to take a break because one of the submissions literally brought us to tears. Interestingly, an overwhelming number of the submissions revolved around 2 main themes: mental health issues caused by the Covid shutdown, and global warming.
We chose a range of work by artists in every stage of their career, with diverse cultural and geographical backgrounds. 20 artists to be represented in-person, and an additional 35 represented online.For each show AdornAxis curates, we use careful consideration for the audience we are presenting to, as well as a number of other factors.
Here are some of our some very specific parameters we used for this exhibition:
-Uniqueness of work.
-Creativity and execution of concept.
-Craftsmanship.
-Quality of the images submitted.
-How well their statement related to their work.
-How well their work and statement related to our theme.
*We made the decision to keep the artists’ written statements as close to the original versions that we received as possible to print in our catalog. We did our best to fix any obvious spelling and grammar mistakes, but chose not to do any major edits because we loved to hear the voice of each artist shining through, and we hope you will as well.
We put our hearts and souls into the selection process and took each submission into careful consideration. We do our best to curate as mindfully as possible. Curating this exhibition was made even more difficult by the overwhelming number of qualified applicants with amazing, compelling work.
We would graciously like to thank all those that applied!
We are filled with overwhelming gratitude for all of the connections we’ve made with each and every one of the artists we’ve been introduced to, and look forward to making even more connections in the future!