 Artists at early, middle or late career stages all emerge in "On the Verge" By Connie Bostic Once again WNC Magazine has given us its annual "On the Verge" juried show of "10 of the best emerging artists" in the region. They were presented in the magazine's June issue and hung in a month-long show at the Phil Mechanic Studios in Asheville's River Arts District.  Once again, in spite of the magazine’s best efforts, the term "emerging" has remained ambiguous. It was defined as an artist who has not had a "significant" one-person exhibition in a gallery that exhibits artists with national reputations or who has not developed a national audience. The magazine even posed a list of possible questions, with good answers, under the rubric of "Do I Qualify?" But, they added, "we are keeping what is and isn’t a significant solo show up to our discretion." Still, with all this clarification, there are artists in the competition who clearly do not fit even a "discretionary” criteria. In one instance an artist's own bio says his work "has been exhibited internationally and nationwide in numerous galleries and institutions.” Another says his work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art! This would seem to belie calling these artists "emerging.” Positive Changes There some positive changes in this year's competition. Jurors were brought in from outside the area, rather than locals as last year. The exhibition venue was open during the River Arts District's spring studio stroll. So the winning artists may have had greater exposure than with last year's show at the Arts Council downtown gallery, now closed. The magazine also added a viewer’s choice to this year’s contest. Anyone could go to the WNC Magazine website and choose a favorite artist from all the images from all the entrants. WNC editor Eric Seeger has endless enthusiasm for the project. "Our big goal is to generate interest in the work of artists in this area," he said. The magazine tries to partner with as many businesses as possible, Seeger said, but is willing to spend "whatever it takes" to make the exhibition a success. "We are learning more every year," he said. "Last year we set the entry deadline for the day after Thanksgiving, and the week before we had only 12 entries. So we had to extend our deadline." This year, there were about 20 fewer entries but all within the deadline. Seeger was particularly pleased that more craftspeople entered the competition this year. "We want the show to reflect all the area's arts, not just painting and sculpture," he said. The stories in the artists’ statements were of prime importance to Seeger. "We had 136 entries this year, and with them 136 unique stories about the artists’ lives and their struggles to make their work." Defining emerging for Seeger is complicated by the artists’ life situations and when and how they came to making their art. Seeger considers it a great privilege to have worked with Jolene Mechanic, the developer and impresario of Phil Mechanic Studios. "Jolene," he said, "is a force of nature. If she sees something that needs to happen, she doesn’t stop till it’s done." He loved having her choose judges from other cities across the country. "This will give important people in the arts in New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta a chance to see what Asheville’s artists are doing and will bring influences from those cities to us here in WNC," he said; "There will be cross-pollination." Well-qualified judges The three judges Mechanic chose, Habib Kheradyar, Marcia Cohen and Jason Andrew, were well qualified. Kheradyar is a West Coast multimedia artist with works in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Berkeley Museum; he also directs the Art Gallery at Long Beach City College. Cohen’s work is in the collections of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. She is a professor at Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, formerly the Atlanta College of Art. Jason Andrew is the curator and archivist of the estate of Abstract Expressionist painter Jack Tworkov and a co-founder of Norte Maar, a nonprofit gallery for collaborative art projects in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Things got a little complicated for Marsha Cohen. The other two judges flew into Asheville, but Cohen decided to drive from Atlanta. She was stopped by a serious snow storm and had to participate on Skype. "The whole process," Cohen said in a telephone interview, "was very well organized. We were asked to review all the work and the artists’ statements beforehand and arrive at the judging with a short list of 15." As expected, the lists from jurors from different parts of the country differed, but there was a consensus on many of the choices. "We all agreed, "she said, "that we should be inclusive, that there should be glass and furniture as well as the other media." The jurors then went through all the works and the statements together. They referred to the artists’ statements when questions arose. This took about three hours. Then they went back to their individual selections and began vigorous discussions about their final choices. When the group finally reached their decision, Cohen said that she was not left feeling that someone she really wanted had been left out. "It was a very positive experience," she said. Readers of the magazine and viewers of the exhibition might want to look on the website to see what the jurors saw. There is a huge variety in media, style and certainly quality. In some instances an artist's first image looks intriguing, but the last one makes you moan. In others the work is so formulaic that you wonder if the artist thinks that Monet painted his haystacks over and over because the first one sold. Reactions Here are some of my reactions. This year’s winners include Dustin Spagnola, who presents big canvases with digitally-based imagery of iconic African-American figures. Severn Eaton creates paintings about war and terrorism that lack subtlety but get his point across. Justin Turcotte’s labor-intensive glass pieces are made interesting because of his insistence that they rest on the smallest possible point of contact. Robb Helmkamp makes elegant furniture that redefines commonplace ideas of use. Sean Pace’s sense of humor draws you into his ironic found-object sculptures before you can catch the serious intent underlying them. Emily Crabtree’s pale abstract works on paper continue to push very personal insights about her life that bring them toward the universal.  Everyone involved in this edition of "On the Verge" made every effort to make it a triumph. In many ways they succeeded. But in looking at the exhibition as a whole, I find something missing. Most of the artists seem to be straightforward in their intent. They demonstrate technical competence. However, there is in some cases a detachment, no "deep-from-inside passion," just a formula that "works." The most successful art for me comes from the artist's gut. I look for art that is from deep personal experience or from intense personal observation, even obsession. I don't find this kind of "walking naked in the world” in some of the work in this year's exhibition. WNC Magazine is going all out to make this exhibition succeed and to call attention to Asheville’s artists and its art scene. However, if they are committed to excellence, it might be helpful to come up with a clearer explanation of what they mean by emerging. It needs to be defined so that all artists have a better idea if they qualify or not. There are likely no fewer artists in Asheville than last year, but perhaps the fact that there were 20 fewer entries this year had something to do with confusion about criteria. The magazine generously does not charge an entry fee to the artists, so you have to wonder why the number dropped. Word on the street is that next year’s show will be at the Asheville Art Museum. Moving from one venue to another is yet another way to encourage cooperation and collaboration, another reason to be grateful to WNC Magazine for "On the Verge."  What did you think of this year's winners of WNC Magazine's "On the Verge" competition? Any of the 10 winners you would have eliminated? Any of the artists not chosen you would have definitely included? Tell us who and why, and we'll add your comments and critiques: audienceasheville[@]att.net. Be sure to remove the brackets in the e-mail address.
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