By JAENELL WOODS
Public Relations Manager, ArtPrize

GRAND RAPIDS — ArtPrize, the radically open international art competition decided by public vote and expert jury, is pleased to announce the participating artists and venues paired at the close of the Connections period, when artists and venues independently organize the city-wide exhibition.

Concurrent with this announcement, ArtPrize is also pleased to announce the 25 recipients of the Artist Seed Grants presented by the Frey Foundation, as well as the Curatorial Fellows for the inaugural Fellowship for Emerging Curators program. The $500,000 competition is slated to take place from Sept. 23 to Oct. 11 in Grand Rapids, Mich.

A total of 1,649 artists from 48 countries and 42 U.S. states submitted 1,554 entries, a slight but notable increase over 2014, for the 7th edition of the world’s largest art competition. Additionally, the growing scope of ArtPrize is reflected in a 21 percent increase of international artist entries over 2014, totaling 137, with Japan taking the lead in international representation at ArtPrize Seven.

Participating artists’ works, entered under one of four categories (2-D, 3-D, Time-based, and Installation), will be displayed in 162 venues located within the three-square-mile jurisdiction of downtown Grand Rapids. Artists and venues are matched in a collaborative curatorial process during an open “Connections” period hosted online at artprize.org.

A complete list of participating artists and venues can be found at: artprize.org/entries.

The panel awarded Artist Seed Grants to the following 25 artists:

• Faig Ahmed, Embroidery Space
• Jarrod Beck, Uplift
• José Carlos Casado, Sacrifice
• Daniel Rothbart, Oculus
• Diana Shpungin, Drawing of a House (Triptych)
• Tomas Rivas, Geometric Flood
• Nick Kline, Pilgrimage
• Jessica Bonenfant Coogan, Disembodied Woman
• Mandy Cano Villalobos, Undocumented Histories
• Megan Pitcher, Breakwall
• Kora Radella, For the toward
• Filippo Tagliati, Site #8
• Sara Dittrich, Symphony of Gestures
• Mark Rumsey, Rumsey Street Office of the Archivist
• Mark Dean Veca, TBD
• Judith BRAUN, As Above
• Jane Cassidy, Brumaire is the color
• Daniel Elkin, Straw Sun Space
• Ritsu Katsumata, In the Beginning
• Armando Ramos, Kind Regards
• Zach Mory, Swell
• LaMarre And Dancers Featuring James Cornish, They Were Displaced… And Again
• Ryan C. Doyle, Activi-Tree
• Karen Lemmert, 345 RGB
• Michael Peoples, The Great Race

ArtPrize also announced the ArtPrize Fellowship for Emerging Curators program, debuting this year. The program gives up-and-coming curators the opportunity to work alongside an established curator at an ArtPrize institutional venue during the seventh annual event. The participating venues for this inaugural year include Grand Rapids Art Museum, SiTE:LAB, Urban Institute for Contemporary Art and Kendall College of Art and Design.

Four Fellows were selected by ArtPrize and its partner institutions’ curatorial teams. Each Fellow will not only assist in curating and creating the venues’ ArtPrize Seven exhibition, but will also curate his or her own ArtPrize exhibition this fall, with the mentorship of the institutional curator.

The $40,000 in grant funding will be divided evenly among the participating venues and their respective Fellows, to aid in the planning and execution of their ArtPrize Seven exhibitions.