Information to Prospective Jury Candidates:

We need to see that the jurying artist is a) comptetent in medium; b) mature, or has potential, in artistic merit; (c) professional in the presentation. In some ways it is easier to say what we don't want: Variable standards; unclear artisitic vision; lack of professional presentation.

My advice to jurees is to present 5 pieces that tell us:

a) You are competent in the medium

b) You have a vision in your art. We see a lot of very pretty and or competent photographs but good art has to go beyond that or show potential of being beyond that. Your pieces therefore should not be variable in standard although the subject might vary.

c) And that you know how to present the work professionally for a gallery:  professionaly/competetently framed and ready to hang. Galleries, generally, and this applies here, do not want garage sale frames with whatever matt you could find. Look at the gallery you are jurying for and note that artwork does not have ornate frames with multicolored matts. Framing is less important than the artwork but important in not distracting from that piece or the fact that it is hanging with other works.

Yes we do want to see recent work. Work that you are doing now or relatively recently that you will likely be hanging in the gallery for sale. You can sell your 5/6 old work but if that is all you have for presentation it does not give us confidence of what you will be presenting for sale in terms of your ongoing production.

After the jurying we will also give you feedback, particularly if you don't jury in. The process is meant to be helpful to everyone and not a pass/fail. Jurying can help you grow as an artist. You have to be a little thick skinned in taking the criticism and ready to hear the bad news; that is part of being a mature artist.

Jurying is difficult for everybody; for the gallery to put in words and each artist to know when to do it and what to present. Generally an artist who is working currently with an ongoing body of work and a vision will likely not have a problem jurying. However, even if you are a very talented artist and your efforts are sporadic with vision unclear it will show in the work.

If you are not currently working on something or don't have newer work ready for gallery presentation, then wait. If you can afford $20 and you want some feedback then do it (but with more recent work) so that you get a feel for jurying. You can always rejury. Many of us have had to do that at Gallery House and other places.

Trevlyn Williams
Gallery House Chair