ArtPrize Recap: Part 2

ArtPrize is the brainchild of Rick DeVos. What's truly unique about this event, is that anyone over the age of 18 can apply to show and any venue within a 3 square-mile radius of downtown Grand Rapids can be an exhibition space. Then artists and venues are matched up to put on their own show.  What this results in, is a giant mishmash of good and bad art.

We've reviewed the good pieces we loved, so now for the "bad" and the ugly ...

First up, the unoriginals and the copycats that make you wonder if imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery:

The Chase vs. Cai Guo Qiang's Head On

John Merigian vs. Alberto Giacometti

Greg Rawls vs. Dale Chihuly

the "van Gogh"s

Jessica Bohus, Running on Air vs. Alexander Calder

the "Calder" mobiles; original on bottom

Russell Parker, An American Journey vs. Jasper Johns, Flag

Jennifer Jones, Composition vs. Kandinsky Composition VI

the sentimental (Zach calls these "human emotional vomit") ...

people

pets

places

the WTH?!!

Terry Ryder, Cultural Planet

Hmmmm ... I can easily recreate a similar picture using my iPhone Tiny Planets app ... for example, 

downtown Pittsburgh, PA

Helix Bridge, Singapore

and finally, the controversial ...

Artist SinGH, Captivity

If you go to the outside space at The B.O.B, you'll see a huge, empty white cage. Artist SinGh, who calls himself the world's best "stunt painter,"  has abandoned his piece after the owner of B.O.B removed his work before the opening of ArtPrize. SinGH's initial concept was to hang different pieces in his cage each day for the duration of the show. All of his topics are challenging, ranging from suicide, bestiality, to politics. His first piece was an effigy of Saddam Hussein hanging from a noose. You can read more about this piece here.

The other controversial piece is graffiti, Vandalism, by an artist who has chosen to keep his/her identity secret a la Banksy.

Apparently this person has been spraying several different stencils of President Gerald Ford under an overpass along I-196 long before ArtPrize.

All previous images, deemed vandalism, were painted over by the Michigan Department of Transportation, but since this one is connected to ArtPrize, it has been allowed to stay. You can view this piece on the side of The B.O.B.