Every art season, it is a safari out there and only the biggest art stars get the lion’s share of the spotlight. This year ARTE FUSE and Galerie Protégé partnered up on an expedition to find the emerging talent in contemporary art, which they naturally selected to fifteen to be in the season opener of the gallery. Both the publication and the gallery had the curated ideals of featuring artists that need attention and exposure. Curator Alison Pierz came in as the third person to join in selecting work for the juried exhibition and open call. More than 300 submissions came in and it took some eagle eye focus to drill down plus the help of an app that scores then tabulates their choices – the final fifteen were naturally selected.
The naturally selected were: Jacob Hicks, Alfonso Oliva, Rodolfo Edwards, Senem Oezdogan, Sofia Echa, Ronald Gaonzalez, Lindsay Fackrell, Day + Waldman, Cassandra Zampini, Maia Radanovic, Kjeld Tidermand, Krista Svalbonas, Sarabeth Domal, Snow Yunxue Fu and Eleni Giannopoulou.
Jacob Hicks won a studio visit and interview, which will be featured soon in ARTE FUSE. As everyone came to peruse the menagerie of art thoughtfully curated in the space, there can be no argument in seeing the supreme level of artistry and workmanship for each piece. The paintings, multi media, video, drawings and sculpture installation were buttressed next to each other to have a steady rhythmic pace. Each one was a leader of the pack and downright exotic creatures of beauty. In providing this platform, we can hope that each one will thrive and be fierce forces in the competitive NY art jungle.
Not only the strong survive – it takes finesse and sheer talent to navigate the ruthless terrain of the art world. And from what we’ve seen, the claws are sharpened to dig in and muscles are conditioned to run the race. Naturally, it gets you to the finish line.
Article by: Oscar A. Laluyan
Selected images from the artists courtesy of the gallery
Photography by: Jamie Martinez
Natural Selection
2017 Juried Exhibition by Galerie Protégé, ARTE FUSE and Alison Pierz
On View: September 7 – October 3, 2017
Hours: M,W,F, Sat 10 am – 6 pm / T, Th 10 am – 7:30 pm / Sun CLOSED
Galerie Protégé. 197 9th Avenue (lower level). NYC, NY 10011
