The Montclair Art Museum Announces Artists for Third Juried Affordable Art Fair

May 21, 2012 - PRLog -- The Montclair Art Museum (MAM) will hold its third juried fair, Collecting Art: An Affordable Art Fair, on Saturday, June 2, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in MAM’s Leir Hall. Local artists will offer their works for prices under $500 to promote affordable collecting of contemporary art. Visitors will also have the opportunity to hear local musicians, sponsored by Whole Foods Market Montclair. MAM will offer free admission to the Museum galleries on June 2 and admission to Collecting Art is also free.

This year, the Museum received a record number of applications, with over 185 artists submitting their work for consideration. From this competitive pool, the following artists were chosen to offer their works: Luis Alves Collage, Alina Bliach, Jo Bradney, Aric Calfee, Gabrielle D’Angelo, Liz Demaree, Robyn Ellenbogen, Susan Fidlon, Michael Hart, Linda A. Ippolito, Ji Yong Kim, Wendy Letven, Maria Lupo, Cathy Pilkin, Adam Pitt, Christopher Reach, Brandon Rechten, Janice Reis, Christine Sauerteig-Pilaar, Christine Soccio, Lisa Stoeffel, Doreen Tighe, Victoria Tullo, and Julian Weitzenfeld. The artists represent a diverse group. From Alina Bliach’s contemporary photography to Ji Yong Kim’s abstract paintings evoking Buddhist pagodas, and from Aric Calfee’s works inspired by advertising and cartoons to Liz Demaree’s mixed-media views of Pt. Murray, the works featured in Collecting Art will offer something to meet every aesthetic.

The first Collecting Art: An Affordable Art Fair was held in October of 2010 in conjunction with the exhibition Living for Art: The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection. The Vogels, a postal clerk and a reference librarian, assembled one of the most remarkable collections of contemporary art in America with limited funds and Collecting Art seeks to offer that same opportunity to visitors of the Museum. This year, the fair coincides with MAM’s current exhibition Look Now: Modern and Contemporary Art from Private Collections, on view through June 17, which similarly seeks to present fantastic loans from local collectors to the public.