Fun House 2018

Description

Barrett Art Center Presents: Fun House 2018

[Poughkeepsie, NY] On Saturday, May 12, Barrett Art Center will open Fun House 2018: Art of the Surreal, Fantastic, and Bizarre, a biennial juried national contemporary art exhibition. A Juried Members’ Show with works selected by Tatana Kellner, co-founder of the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, New York will also open in the second-floor gallery. 

Fun House 2018 features paintings, drawings, photography, and sculpture by artists from 13 states, as well as Italy and Australia. Jurors Danijela Krha Purssey, Co-Founder and Editor, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine and illustrator Istvan Banyai selected 75 works from over 960 submissions from the US and around the word. Mid-Hudson Valley artists selected for Fun House 2018 include photographer Jim Allen (Millbrook), metalsmith Betsy Lewis (Poughkeepsie), and painter Wayne Swarthout (Saugerties). Lewis’ silve sculpture Artists from across the region will present artist’s talks about the inspiration for their surreal artwork on two Saturdays during the exhibition.

“We’re excited to fill our galleries with unconventional artwork that might not easily fit typical exhibition themes,” says Barrett Art Center Executive Director, Joanna Frang. “Every two years, the Fun House exhibition is an opportunity for us to stretch our imaginations and re-examine our notions of what art “should” look like. It’s a perfect example of our mission to bring high-caliber, cutting-edge artwork to the community in the galleries of our historic building.”

An opening reception for Fun House 2018 and the Juried Members’ Show will take place Saturday, May 12, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Jurors’ awards with cash prizes for Fun House 2018 and the Juried Members’ Show will be announced at 5:00 p.m., followed by a walking tour of the exhibition with any artists in attendance. The reception is free and open to the public. The exhibition will be on view through June 23 at Barrett Art Center, 55 Noxon Street, Poughkeepsie, New York.

Jurors
Danijela Krha Purssey, Co-Founder and Editor, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine

Istvan Banyai, Illustrator, aniator, and design, author of children's book, Zoom.

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About the Jurors: 
Danijela Krha Purssey is an entrepreneur and the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Australian based international contemporary art magazine, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine.
She is deeply passionate and committed to her vision to help shift the paradigm in the global contemporary arts industry regarding what is defined and accepted as contemporary art. Danijela has created a carefully curated, unique contemporary arts experience via all the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine touch points that inspire, encourage, grow, and promote emerging and leading contemporary creatives both locally and around the world. 

Born in Croatia, she migrated to Australia at the age of three. From a young age Danijela was drawn to art, fashion and the aesthetics of beauty and original creativity.

Danijela founded Beautiful Bizarre Magazine in 2013 with her husband, Richard Purssey, through a desire to showcase new and emerging artists to the world. In the 4+ years since the launch of Beautiful Bizarre Magazine she has released 19 print issues, published over 1500 web articles, developed and launched the interactive digital magazine, curated 5 exhibitions in three countries, and shared the work of countless creatives from all corners of the globe across the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine social media platforms which have grown to over 850,000 followers.

Beautiful Bizarre Magazine has inspired creatives to pursue a life and career in the arts and helped artists’ careers grow via the exposure of their work. Danijela has given artists and photographers, many of whose work is not widely accepted by the fine art establishment, a voice, a platform, and a tribe.
Danijela has forged global connections with artists, collectors, gallery owners and their communities to further her vision for the new contemporary art scene and to help galleries and creatives thrive.

In late 2016 Danijela was awarded the prestigious AMP Foundation ‘Tomorrow Makers’ Award, and grant funding to expand Beautiful Bizarre Magazine.
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Istvan Banyai is an illustrator, animator, and designer who received his BFA from Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, in Budapest. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Atlantic Monthly, Vanity Fair, Playboy, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, Time, Fortune, O, Readers Digest, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times and Reuters. In 1995 Banyai produced his first wordless children's book, Zoom. Honored as one of the best children's books of the year by The New York Times and Publishers Weekly, Zoom was soon published in 18 languages.

Banyai continues to produce; cover art for Sony and Verve Records; and animated short films for Nickelodeon and MTV Europe. He is internationally respected for his unique philosophical and iconoclastic vision. Banyai describes his art as "an organic combination of turn-of-the-century Viennese retro, interjected with American pop, some European absurdity added for flavor, served on a cartoon-style color palette... no social realism added."

http://www.ist-one.com/