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The Cincinnati based non-profit arts organization and gallery, Manifest, invites visual artists and designers to submit original works of art about compositional experiments, proofs, challenges overcome or overwhelmed by, of precarious equilibrium, impossible stability, and the role such concepts play in making compelling meaning through the visual. Open to any and all traditional and non-traditional visual arts 2d, 3d, or 4d media, genre, and subject.

Considered one of the seven principles of visual organization, Balance is a fundamental concept in in art.

In theory, balance is achieved when the parts of the whole are arranged so that they either hold still, or flow without losing control—through either static or dynamic balance. Typically balance is a formal, visual factor—part of the physics of a work of art. (Such physical parallels as center of gravity, centrifugal and centripetal force, and kinetic and potential energy can easily be applied to visual art regarding balance, not to mention movement, another related principle.) But in reality, both visual and conceptual weight are aspects of the concept. We know how the visual looks and feels, almost intuitively, but what does conceptual balance look like?

In practice, balance is a hard thing to achieve, especially if you pursue greater compositional dynamism, challenging your formats and rhythms. Training your sense of balance requires study, trials, and practice—and a lot of falling. You take it for granted when you have it. But when you don’t, you notice.

There are so many ways to fall.

There are also many arrangements that hold together, that support a work’s unity, that resonate and stay alight—arrangements that contribute to the overall content of the work, and the experience it offers.

http://www.manifestgallery.org/balance

Opportunity Website

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