Artists, showcase your ABSTRACT style work of any medium into Showdown to win a chance to display your art at the Saatchi Gallery in London.
Not only would you receive recognition, but you may also win a cash prize of up to $1,000! Enter your work by Tuesday, March 13.
The winning piece will be chosen by internationally acclaimed artist Peter Coffin.
If you’ve entered Showdown, we’re glad to have you. If you’re considering participating, we wanted to provide you some tips to help your submission stand out to the judges. What’s more, hundreds of thousands of art lovers from around the world will see your submission and will have the opportunity to cast a vote for your work in the preliminary round so we want to help you put your best foot forward.
(Note: The 50 submissions that garnered the most community votes will automatically move along to the second round, along with 250 pieces selected by the Saatchi Online professional staff).
Presentation: Making sure your art can be viewed accurately is one of the most important elements of presenting your work online and of course in participating in Showdown. Lighting, cropping and presentation are essential. Make sure that the background isn’t showing when you crop your image, there aren’t any hot spots in the lighting and be sure to upload high quality images by not overly compressing image files.
For more information on how to photograph your work check out our artist resource page: http://www.saatchionline.com/artschool.
Fill Out All the Boxes: We want to know about you. What’s more art collectors want to as well. If you have an artist statement, we strongly encourage you to put it on your profile page. An artist statement can be anything as long as you think it helps people to understand how you make your work. It can describe what you are thinking, why you make art or even the process of how you made something.
Looking for some inspiration? Kelly Susan, the winner of the last Showdown included a very clear statement about herself and her process. Always ask yourself: who, what,where, when, why and how.
Promote & Market Yourself: The first round of the competition is open for community voting. Other artists, art lovers and collectors will have the chance to cast their vote for your work. Let everyone know that you are participating in the Showdown. In your profile, you’ll find a link to your specific submission. Post your link to facebook, tweet about it, add your submission to Tumblr and of course email your friends and family. Feel free to promote your submission on other artist communities.
The second round will be led by Rebecca Wilson, Director of the Saatchi Gallery London. The final round will be judged by internationally acclaimed artist and Smithsonian Fellow, Peter Coffin.
Understand the Contest Rules:Keep up to date on all the rules and workings of Showdown. Read the blog posts, rules and information provided in order to understand each step of the process. Understand that the Abstract Showdown isn’t restrained to any medium but to the style of abstract work.
Thank you for sharing your talent and enthusiasm with the Saatchi Online Community, we look forward to seeing your work!
- The Saatchi Online Team
Aura Portrait (Peter), 2000, ©Peter Coffin
We are happy to announce that artist Peter Coffin will be judging our Abstract Showdown competition. Peter Coffin’s interdisciplinary practice explores conceptual point of view and is motivated by the desire to connect with the kind of understanding that invites new perspective and engenders further inquiry.
His artwork often integrates an informal objectivity with the subjective to generate a dynamic between the two. Coffin has mounted solo exhibitions at Herald St. Gallery, London (2011), Galerie Emmanuel Perroin (2010), Manhattan’s City Hall Park with the Public Art Fund (2009 - 2010), the Centre d’art Contemporain d’Ivry in Paris (2010), the Barbican Gallery, London (2009), the Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2009), the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco (2009), Centre d’Art Contemporain, Fribourg, Switzerland (2009), Andrew Kreps Gallery, NY (2008), Palais de Tokyo Museum, Paris, France (2007), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2007), le Confort Moderne, Poitier, France (2007) and the Horticultural Society of New York (2007).
His work has been featured in group exhibitions at the Le Musee Oceanographique, Monaco, Museo D’Arte Contemporanea Rome, the Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Vigo, Spain, the Tate Britain, London, the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich and international biennials in London, Berlin, Belgrade, Liverpool, and Moscow. Peter Coffin’s work is in collections including the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the Guggenheim Museum, NY, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The French National Arts Council Collection among others.
Currently Coffin is a Smithsonian Research Fellow and is preparing solo exhibitions with the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C. in 2013.
We are excited to launch the next Showdown. Community participation over the past several months has been extraordinary. Of course we’re thrilled for our winners who were each given the opportunity to show their work in London at the Saatchi Gallery. Perhaps this time it will be you?
As you may have noticed, the past two showdowns were “themed” (Drawing & Collage). What’s more, we invited internationally acclaimed artists, Dexter Dalwood and Wangechi Mutu to judge the finals, two updates that have proven very popular. In that same vein, our next Showdown will be style based- - Abstract Art and will be judged by another internationally acclaimed artist (announcement coming soon).
As we continue to evolve the competition so that artists and collectors alike have a great experience, we wanted to update you on a some additional changes. We’ve received a great deal of feedback and have made what we feel are very positive adjustments. Changes are as follows:
Submissions:
