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The Cincinnati-based nonprofit arts organization and gallery, Manifest, invites visual artists to submit works which in some way address or reflect the theme of REDUCTION. Artists are encouraged to take a broadly creative view in interpreting the theme as it applies to their work. Works may reflect reduction as a part of the process of its making (carving or cutting away), or address the theme by the evident honing of the formal or conceptual aspects of the artwork.

All art is by one means or another ‘designed.’ Contrary to the common assumption that art is a process of adding material up, assembling, growing a thing from raw materials, to design something effectively generally involves the under-appreciated skill of reduction—the cutting away of extraneous, unnecessary elements and material, the elimination of all that is not in the work’s best interest, even if this is simply a process of decision-making—in order to reach a single, conclusive whole. When this is done well it is considered to be an example of Unity, where all the parts add up to a well-functioning unit, something greater than just their sum, without anything unnecessary getting in the way or distracting from the content of the work.

http://www.manifestgallery.org/reduction

Opportunity Website

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