Spier Contemporary 2010
SOUTH AFRICA’S LARGEST CONTEMPORARY EXHIBITION
The Spier Contemporary exhibition has been conceived to provide an open platform for all artists to show their work, uncompromised by the limitations of technology, space and access. Artists in South Africa work under extremely varied conditions and see from radically different perspectives. These differences are what define our collective identity and unique social and cultural landscape. The Spier Contemporary provides a space for exploring our diversity, giving audiences insights into our complexity and thus contributing to our understanding of difference.
The core objectives of the Spier Contemporary are to:
- Create a large-scale national exhibition, which genuinely reflects the diversity of the arts community living in South Africa;
- Develop new audiences and markets for artists, who do not normally have access to such a large pool of potential buyers;
- Access new audiences and develop their appreciation of a broad spectrum of artistic forms; and
- Provide training and development for artists and curators.
Competition and Exhibition
The Spier Contemporary functions as both a national competition and exhibition. The competition is open to all artists and art forms including, but not exclusive to the traditional mediums (e.g. painting, printmaking, photography and sculpture) and newer languages (e.g. installation, new media, film or performance). There are genuinely no limitations.
For the 2010 exhibition, submissions took place at thirteen selection centres across South Africa. Whilst the majority of entries came in to the major city centres, there was a noticeable increase in outlying areas from the Spier Contemporary 2007/2008. This was the result of a significant amount of developmental work that the Spier Contemporary project rolled out in these areas.
There were just over 2,700 entries in total; from which100 artists have been selected to exhibit their art, which translates into over 130 art pieces for the Exhibition.
The Spier Contemporary 2010 will be launched in Cape Town on 14th March 2010 at the City Hall in Darling Street. After Cape Town the exhibition will travel to Museum Africa in Johannesburg and the Durban Art Gallery.
To view a film on Spier Contemporary, click here. For more information and more recent updates about the Spier Contemporary 2010, or to consult the Spier Contemporary 2007/2008 archive, please go to: www.spiercontemporary2010.co.za