8th Annual ARC Salon
ARC is pleased to present the winners of the 8th International Salon Competition. This was our largest turnout yet with over 2,100 entries and over 800 artists participating. There were a large number of high quality works that did not make it into the finals. This was true even after extending the original 300+ expected finalist pieces to over 500. Out of the 802 artists only 359 are represented here, less then half, and only 25% of the total submitted works are shown. To become a finalist is even more difficult than before and a huge accomplishment; so congratulations to all!
The Salon Catalogue this year will run over 200 pages and will be a monument to the spectacular art being created by talented realist artists around the world; offering the viewer high technical skill in the representation of both traditional themes as well as an explosion of new subject matter with a 21st century feel that cannot be confused with any other time period. It is truly an exciting time to be an artist. We are at the cusp of a new dawn for realist style paintings, with new schools taught by atelier trained artists opening around the world, and more and more galleries and organizations dedicated to realism opening their doors, we expect a strong shift in the art world around the bend. Artists who are still doing abstract expressionism and paintings of squares and squiggles feel dated and old fashioned to much of the public, and more and more critics who claim realism is a return to the past will be laughed at when shown the contemporary work and subject matter of today's realist painters and sculptors.
Because of the large number of entries, we will be introducing a new category for the Art Renewal Center 2012/2013 International Salon: Imaginative Realism. This new category will include historical work, fantasy, religious, and Sci-Fi entries, with portraits and other realist based figurative works remaining in the Figurative Category. Entrants will be able to enter their work in multiple categories as they see fit. We will start accepting entries to the 2012/2013 Salon September 1st, so if you are an artist, start planning now.
