Opportunities → Members Showcase
Submission deadline: December 9, 2020
2021 ARTIST MEMBERS MICRO EXHIBITIONS
The Center for Book Arts Artist Membership program is dedicated to supporting the work of Book Artists across the globe. One of the ongoing benefits of the Artist Membership is the opportunity to exhibit work at the Center for Book Arts.
This year, we are pleased to invite Artist Members to submit artwork proposals for the 2021 Artist Member Showcase. Artist Members will be selected to present a micro-exhibition featuring a single work. Each month the showcase, situated within the Center’s Collection Spotlight Area, will present a different members’ micro-exhibition, along with a short description of the work and an artist bio.
Although there is no theme to the showcase this year, we encourage artists to submit artworks encompassing the broadest exploration and experimentation of the book as an art object.
Each proposal must be completed online through this submittable portal and must include:
- The member’s contact information
- A 300 word max artist bio
- One page Artist CV in pdf format
- A 200 word max artwork explanation
- 1-3 high resolution images a single completed work.
- A 200 word artwork proposal with illustrations or images of current works. If not available, please submit recent work samples produced within the last 2 years. Images should be uploaded in jpg format and should be a minimum of 800px and maximum of 1200px in either direction.
Submissions are selected based on the quality and originality of the artwork as presented through the member’s submitted photo documentation and description of the artwork proposed. In an effort to promote initiatives toward anti-racism, equity, and accessibility, all submissions are judged without access to any biographical information.
Application questions should be addressed to exhibitions@centerforbookarts.org
Our 2020 Featured Artist Member is Tia Blassingame, a book artist, and printmaker exploring the intersection of race, history, and perception. Her mini exhibition Mourning/Warning is on view at the Center through December 12th, 2020.
Her artist statement reads: “Stripping the maritime alphabet of its primary colors and replacing them with muted browns and blacks, Mourning/Warning highlights the relationship of Americans of the African diaspora to water, maritime travel and the need for an alternate means of communication in times of emergency and duress. How do you send a warning call that hatred comes constantly in waves? The Mourning/Warning set contains alphabetical maritime flags of sewn nylon with digitally printed books. An Abecedarian serves as the key for using the flags. The Numbers and Repeaters book showcases the remaining flag system. The M/W flags set serves as a method of memorializing the slain and wronged, and of teaching our children and ourselves to be vigilant and wary in hostile terrain, where your skin color makes you an easy target.”
Tia Blassingame often incorporates archival research and her own poetry in her artist’s book projects for nuanced discussions of racism in the United States. She holds a B.A. in Architecture from Princeton University, M.A. in Book Arts from Corcoran College of Art + Design, and M.F.A. in Printmaking from Rhode Island School of Design. Blassingame has been an artist-in-residence at Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, Santa Fe Art Institute, and the International Printing Center New York (IPCNY). Her artist’s books and prints can be found in library and museum collections including Library of Congress, Columbia University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, and State Library of Queensland. Blassingame is an Assistant Professor of Book Arts at Scripps College and serves as the Director of Scripps College Press.
View more on her website, Instagram, Twitter, and in our Collection.