Open

Our seventh Art competition “Open” started in January 2024 and concluded on February 08, 2024. Art Room Gallery received entries from many countries around the world: USA, Italy, Denmark, Austria, China, Bangladesh, Taiwan, France, Romania, Canada and Hungary. The Open theme in this competition included a diversity in types, styles and mediums (oil on canvas, acrylic, watercolor, pastel, graphite, clay, ceramics, terracota, ink, digital painting, photography). The following evaluation criteria has been used for judging the artwork: creativity, interpretation of the theme, originality and quality of art, overall design, demonstration of artistic ability, and usage of medium. Jury decided to select 120 artworks for inclusion in the exhibition. Aside from First, Second, and Third place Jury also presented Merit awards and Honorable Mention awards.

Thank you, and enjoy the exhibition!

First place

Statement:

Luke Kooper was born in New York City in 1990. He attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he studied Art and Architecture. In 2013, Luke participated in the Land Art Road Trip, a mobile residency program that traveled across the American Southwest to explore the intersection between art and natural landscape. Since then, Luke has been working on series of large-scale sculptures that explore our relationship with wood. Most recently, he featured an AR experience of one of his wooden sculptures at Pace Gallery. My sculptures explore the relationship between humans and trees by emphasizing the diverse tactile qualities of wood. Figurative yet abstract, they are symbolic representation of both the viewer and the trees from which they are made. My sculptures celebrate wood’s natural imperfections, reminding the viewer, that like each person, each tree is unique and beautiful in its own way. My creative process embraces both additive and subtractive methods of sculpting. Inspired by geometric progressions and natural forms, I begin by meticulously planning each piece, building up towering forms by laminating individual, often contrasting, pieces of wood. This creates a visual language of geometric patterns and spatial illusions that are embedded within. From there, I focus on carving playful, organic forms that accentuate the textural intricacies of the grain. The resulting sculptures play with scale and push the boundaries of material perception, transforming a once rigid medium into something graceful and alive. My sculptures are an homage to the life of a tree and all its beauty—they are an attempt to renew our appreciation for wood, a raw material that has been reduced to a highly-manufactured resource often overlooked because of its ubiquity.

Statement:

The play of what is real and what is not is an important part of my work in clay. I use realism to convey humor, scale, irony, importance and familiarity to my subjects, but often add elements that prompt a second look. My compositions are simple, sparse and void of all that is unnecessary. I focus mostly on single dominant subjects, everyday objects, where the mundane becomes heroic, seducing the viewer to see things sometimes obvious and sometimes hidden in my work to challenge our preconception of the use of clay in art and prompt a closer look at the seemingly ordinary things around us.

Statement:

In my artistic process, I build my creations around palettes that embody a diverse spectrum of colors, textures, and patterns. Each palette symbolizes a specific moment in my artistic odyssey, encapsulating the spirit of my prior works. As I delicately slice off paint from these palettes, I am transported back to the deliberate brushstrokes and creative choices I made in the past. These paint remnants metamorphose into the foundation for my sculptures, mosaics, and collages, seamlessly blending the narrative of my artistic evolution with the present moment. For me, the paint itself assumes a starring role in my art, as I embrace its innate characteristics and allow it to shape my artistic journey. The chance and deliberate layering of paint on the palettes evoke a naturalistic aesthetic, resembling the layers and stratifications found in geological formations. The correlation between the history of the earth and the layered account embedded in each palette captivates me. Furthermore, my dedication to sustainability goes beyond repurposing palettes. I actively seek out discarded paint tubes, providing them with a new purpose. Additionally, I salvage unsuccessful artworks and scraps from my sculptures and collages to ensure that no paint is wasted. Delving into the sculptural potential of dried paint allows me to transcend traditional two-dimensional painting and explore the expansive artistic horizons it offers.