Huntsville Museum to Present The Red Clay Survey with 80 Works by 61 ArtistsRepresenting 10 Southern States
The Huntsville Museum of Art is pleased to present "The Red Clay Survey: 2012 Exhibition of Contemporary Southern Art," which opens to the public Sunday, May 20. Red Clay Survey is arecurring juried exhibition open to established and emerging artists in 11 Southern states. In its11th presentation, it will be on view through September 16, 2012.
Huntsville, AL, May 14, 2012 --(PR.com)-- The Huntsville Museum of Art is pleased to present The RedClay Survey: 2012 Exhibition of Contemporary Southern Art, which opens to the public Sunday, May 20.The Red Clay Survey is a recurring juried exhibition open to established and emerging artists in 11Southern states. In its eleventh presentation, the exhibit will be on view through September 16, 2012.The artists juried into The Red Clay Survey are selected through a comprehensive two-fold process,involving an initial stage of jurying by image and a second stage of reviewing actual works. Out of 1,400entries the Museum received, the jurors chose 80 works by 61 artists from 10 states.The competition will feature more than $8,000 in cash awards, including Museum Purchase Awards, aJuror's Choice Award, two Alabama Artist Awards, four Merit Awards, and a People's Choice Awarddetermined by Museum visitors by voting in the gallery during the run of the show.This year's jurors are realist artists Janet Monafo and Paul Rahilly of Boston, Mass. Monafo has earnedwide respect from collectors, curators, and artists for her exquisitely rendered pastels. Currently teachingdrawing at Massachusetts College of Art, she is a nationally recognized artist with a long list of accolades. In 2002 she was elected into the Pastel Society of America's Hall of Fame, an honor also heldby William Merritt Chase and Mary Cassatt.Rahilly is a leading figure in the field of contemporary American realism. Currently an instructor inpainting and drawing at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Massachusetts College of Art, he is equally admired and collected as a painter of figures, portraits, landscapes, and still lifes.“The Red Clay Survey provides Museum visitors with a rare opportunity to become familiar with what'scurrently happening on the contemporary art scene across the South,” Peter J. Baldaia, director of Curatorial Affairs, said. “As in years past, the exhibition includes a wide range of fine art and craft media,in styles ranging from traditional to avant-garde.”Initiated in 1988, the series “takes the pulse” of current art and intends to recognize and encourageexcellence, while providing a permanent record of the development of regional art through thepublication of a comprehensive exhibition catalogue.The Museum will celebrate the opening of the exhibition with a Preview Party on Saturday, May 19, from7 to 9 p.m. The award winners will be announced at 7:30 p.m. Attendees will have the opportunity tomeet some of the Red Clay artists, hear live jazz music by The Ken Watters Group, and enjoy a reception