Expat Global Art launches a national contest for young contemporary artists. It aims to support and popularize Bulgarian contemporary art by drawing public attention to promising young and emerging artists, according to Expat Capital.
Expat Capital set up Expat Global Art fund in March this year. It is the first fund in Central and East Europe investing in artworks.
The aim of the national contest for young contemporary artists is to enable young talents bring their first piece of fine craftmanship. The artists will be promoted in the country and abroad in the future, as part of the Fund’s portfolio. This would stimulate the establishment and regulation of a sustainable art market in Bulgaria, while also having a positive effect for the shareholders in the fund. Artworks purchased by Expat Global Art will be exhibited in galleries and promoted through the Fund`s website.
Expat Global Arts has a budget of BGN 500 000 that can be used to purchase artworks from the contest. The amount of money to be invested depends on the number and quality of the participants and their artworks. Contest participation is free of charge.
The main criteria for the artworks include innovative visual language, attitude towards contemporary artistic reality, socially significant topics, and adherence to ethical principles.
The contest will be held in 6 categories – painting, sculpture, graphics, photography, textiles and digital arts.
First place artworks in each category will be bought by the Fund for a price of 1500 lv, second place winners – for 1200 lv, third place winners – for 1000lv. All other artworks outside the prize-winning places can be purchased by the Fund on mutually acceptable terms with the participants.
Those wishing to participate in the contest must be between 16 and 30 years old, as of June 30, 2019. The participants may be Bulgarian or foreign nationals, if they live and work in the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria. In case they live and work abroad, the participants must be Bulgarian citizens.
They must register with their real names, birth dates and contact information (address, e-mail and telephone) and agree to be announced as participants in the contest. Candidates must agree to have their artworks published on the Fund’s website.
Furthermore, participants must agree to sell the artwork with which they participate in the contest on mutually acceptable terms in an event of a buy offer from the Fund.
The sale will also include copyright for the use of the artworks in reproductions and promotional materials.
Applications for participation can be emailed to art@expat.bg until midnight on June 20, 2019. Applications should be sent from participants’ personal emails with a compulsory email subject text– “For contest participation”. Personal information of the candidate must be included – full passport name, date and place of birth, nationality, address and telephone number, title of the artwork and category in which the applicant participates.
Candidates can apply with many artworks in many different categories. High quality photos with good resolution of the artworks must be attached to the application. A single attachment shouldn’t be larger than 5 MB and overall message size is preferably less than 20 MB.
Each artwork needs to be sent in a separate application, containing all the artist details listed above. A confirmation email will be sent for each application.