40 Artists Over 40 Years of Age
Breaking the Mold of Ageism in the Art World: Chicago Art Magazine Begins the “40 Over 40” Series
Chicago Art Magazine will release a series of eight articles, featuring forty artists born before February, 1971.
The series seeks to challenge the New Museum’s acclaimed “Younger Than Jesus” exhibit, which only allowed artists under the age of 33.
Chicago, IL (PRWEB) February 11, 2011
Chicago Art Magazine this month sets out to prove that new, fresh, innovative, creative art exists in all stages of life.
“It seems that more and more the term ‘emerging artist’ is defined by DOB,” says Kathryn Born, publisher of the popular Chicago online magazine who’s introduction to the series “Breakout Artists Over 40” (http://chicagoartmagazine.com/?p=13377) stated, “The art world is obsessed with youth; in fact, many artists over forty can’t even enter juried art exhibits under the category ‘emerging artist.’”
The series seeks to challenge the New Museum’s acclaimed “Younger Than Jesus” exhibit, which only allowed artists under the age of 33. Born, who turns forty herself this month, started thinking about the irony of her own situation. “When I was in my early twenties, I felt immense pressure to ‘make it’ before turning 30, and now, as a publisher, I see the absurdity of it. Some of the strongest, most valuable art made in Chicago is being created by artists who have been out of art school for over a decade.”
The magazine sent out a call for nominations and drew from an internal pool of artists selected by the editors. “I think we hit a nerve. The response was phenomenal,” says Born. The series now contains over eight articles that celebrate over 40 artists born before February, 1971. These articles will be published several times a week between February 11 and February 28, 2011.
“It’s always important to keep an eye out for new talent, but it’s equally important not to dismiss artists who have hit their strides and created large bodies of quality work.” Born continues, “’Breakout’ is a type of art-making that pushes boundaries, and somewhere along the way, it became associated with the state of an artist’s biological age. This was particularly damaging to women artists with children.”
As Chicago Art Magazine celebrate artists – from a street artist known to be over sixty, to artists who run their own spaces, to performance and installation artists – the audience will see the quality of the work and the radical thought that has evolved over time and created daring work for decades.
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http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/02/prweb5055194.htm
Articles in this series on Chicago Art Magazine:
40 over 40: The Public Art Scene
40 over 40-With My Own Two Hands: Chicago Sculptors
Finger Paint, Baseball, and Comics: This Art Isn’t for Your Kids
40 over 40- Through the Lens: Chicago Photographers
40 Over 40: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle- Artists Working with Trash
40 over 40: Performance and Installation Artists
40 x 40: Keeping with Tradition- Contemporary Representational Painters
Kathryn, I am thrilled to get my first issue of Chgo Art Mag. Hurray for the look at mature, well developed artists and their art! I would like to introduce you to my work. I have been a photographer for many years and have recently been named one of the top 100 photographers in the international competition One Life. I am also exhibiting now at SOHO Photo-”Small Works”, and the Vermont Center for Photography “Pose and Gesture”. Please check out my blog and website http://www.joycelopez.com/blog.
I look forward to meeting you at some point!
Best,
Joyce
Dear Kathryn: I have been a artist over 30years, I like to share my art work with you. http://www.zhenguoart.com
Thank you
Zhen Guo
Kathryn,
I have always thought of myself as an emerging artist. I have been emerging for 40 years. I feel that at this time I am beginning to hit my stride. If the old bod keeps working so will I. I have a studio in the basement of 350 North Ogden and show around the country when I can afford it. If you would like to see some of my work I’d be more than glad to show you or send some images.The most current work is on facebook. I joke with some of my artist friends that if we begin to get hot at least we won’t have the problem of being a child prodigy.
Mike
Great series Kathryn! I had been oppressed for years until at age 47 I left that life and began to make myself new. I enrolled in school, went full-time almost non-stop, and received an MFA at age 53 in 2006. Financially I had less than the majority of younter students around me. I had no family to count on…no spare bedroom waiting for me to come home to if all failed, no credit (thought many presumed because of my age I was financailly well-off, “returning to school” because I was bored or something). I have not only encountered age restrictions on submission forms to submit art proposals but also for writing.
One specifically gets me because it is named after Grandma Gateway, who was the first to hike the Appalachian Trail at age 67. “Grandma Emma Gatewood was an Ohio farmers wife, mother of eleven children, grandmother of twenty three. She was the first woman to hike the 2,168-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine solo.” The award was for a considerable amount of money, as are many of these opportunities. I pointed out to the people who ran the publication that there was a stark contradiction with their age restrictions and the life of Grandma Gateway Their goals to support emerging writers needed to get rid of any age requirement, —or at least change their title. They said they would make an exception and allow me to submit—but would not change their age requirements. They didn’t didn’t get it.
Thanks for doing this series. I hope it begins to shine a light on the discrimination that continues in our society and stir people towards change.
thanks!
Beverly
Thank you Kathryn. I’m 51, I consider myself a renaissance woman and I am an emerging artist. I started pianting for the first time only three years ago. I have never let society determine my life’s journey nor define when, where and how I should live. I recently was selected by a jury to be in my first exhibition. This will be the first of many.
At this stage in my life I have a wealth of experience to share through my work of arts. Success for me now is traveling my journey as an artist with integrity, trust, and love. I go forth in peace not knowing where my journey shall take me but I am fully engaged in the process of learning my craft. I will continue to participate and promote visual arts publiclybecause I beilive art is beneficial to the well-being of mankind. Through this path and inner strength I am truly free to paint on my canvas of life.