WILMINGTON, DE.- The Delaware Art Museum announced its Centennial Juried Exhibition, which celebrates the Museum’s 100-year commitment to supporting regional visual artists. On view October 20, 2012 through January 13, 2013, the Centennial Juried Exhibition commemorates the Museum’s past annual exhibitions of painting and crafts—which combined to form the Biennial in 1989. Guest-juried by John B. Ravenal, this exhibition celebrates the tradition of juried exhibitions in Delaware and the surrounding region while identifying the artistic trends that will characterize the region’s future.

“The 1,300 artworks submitted covered a wide range of media, styles, and abilities,” says Ravenal. “There were accomplished senior artists, emerging talents, and probably some Sunday hobbyists. There was painting, sculpture, installation art, video, drawing, photography, crafts, and things that defy categorization. I accepted around one-fifth of the applicants and, for the most part, chose one work from each. I was looking for quality, regardless of the type or approach of the work, thus the selection is eclectic. What ties it together is that each of these works was vital enough to make me, and I think others, be excited to see them in person.”

Between January 1 and March 18, 2012, nearly 450 applicants submitted artworks for consideration. To be eligible, artists had to be 18 or older and currently residing either within the State of Delaware or within 100 miles of the Museum. Guest juror John B. Ravenal, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, selected the 96 artists.

The juror
John B. Ravenal is the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. Prior to that, Ravenal was Associate Curator of 20th century art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In Philadelphia he worked with artists Sherrie Levine, Lawrence Weiner, and Rirkrit Tiravanija on commissioned projects and curated a retrospective of paintings and drawings by Sidney Goodman. Since joining the VMFA in 1998, Ravenal’s exhibitions have included Vanitas: Meditations on Life and Death in Contemporary Art; Robert Lazzarini’s first solo museum exhibition; and an exhibition of the work of Virginia-based photographer, Sally Mann. Ravenal earned his MA and MPhil in Art History from Columbia University.