28th Annual Juried Woodworking Exhibition Wharton Esher­ick Museum

In 1994, the annual juried wood­work­ing exhi­bi­tion began as an oppor­tu­nity to encour­age new, creative and imag­i­na­tive designs in wood. Encour­aged to think like Esher­ick and invent designs both expres­sive and func­tional, profes­sional wood­work­ers, artists, hobby­ists and crafts­peo­ple have submit­ted hundreds of pieces reflect­ing each year’s theme. From wooden jewelry to wall cabi­nets, chairs to desk acces­sories and every­thing in between, the next gener­a­tion of artistry in wood has passed through the doors of the Wharton Esherick Museum.

THE CHAL­LENGE

Wharton Esherick’s remark­able home and studio is perhaps the most complete self-portrait that exists of this icon­o­clas­tic artist. Esher­ick painted and drew more tradi­tional self-portraits at various points in his career, includ­ing his 1919 depic­tion that hangs at WEM. He was also captured in portraits by artist friends and patrons, includ­ing Henry Varnum Poor, Marjorie Content, and Virginia Mason Gifford. And yet, the Studio writ large may show us more than any of these repre­sen­ta­tional images about how Esher­ick saw himself and his life. 

Esher­ick designed (and redesigned) this space for living life as his truest self. It is filled not only with artworks from all moments of Esherick’s career, but also the objects and inspi­ra­tions with which he lived, worked, and thought. We consider the Studio to be a living, breath­ing, dynamic self-portrait, both as it existed while Esher­ick lived there and as it exists now to share his story. As the Wharton Esher­ick Museum cele­brates its 50th Anniver­sary in 2022, we’re reflect­ing on how we’ve shared and inter­preted Esherick’s remark­able self-portrait for thou­sands of people over half a century. In turn, we invite you to share inno­v­a­tive works of art, craft, and design that repre­sent a self-portrait; wood must be part of your entry, but it doesn’t have to be the only mate­r­ial used. Each submis­sion will have a differ­ent approach to what it means to make a self-portrait, just as Esherick’s ​“self-portraits” took on many diverse forms. We hope to see YOU, repre­sented using wood, in some way. You might approach this call through tradi­tional portrai­ture, an abstract inter­pre­ta­tion, a func­tional work that repre­sents your unique outlook on the world, or some other form of object making that captures who you are. 

What’s your version of a self-portrait?

SELEC­TION

Jurors Fabio J. Fernán­dez, Direc­tor, Green­wich House Pottery, and artist, wood­worker, and educa­tor Keunho Peter Park, along with Emily Zilber, the Wharton Esher­ick Museum’s Direc­tor of Cura­to­r­ial Affairs and Strate­gic Part­ner­ships, will select the final­ists for the exhi­bi­tion from the images submit­ted using a blind jury process. It is strongly recom­mended that you submit high-quality images to ensure the jury sees your piece at its best.

The compe­ti­tion is open to both emerg­ing and estab­lished makers. Entered works should be avail­able for the dura­tion of the exhi­bi­tion. Jurors will eval­u­ate the submis­sions based on inven­tive approaches to the prompt, crafts­man­ship and tech­ni­cal profi­ciency, aesthet­ics, and other consid­er­a­tions as deter­mined by the jury.

Fabio J. Fernán­dez is an artist, arts advo­cate, educa­tor, and arts admin­is­tra­tor, and the Direc­tor of Green­wich House Pottery in New York City. He is the former Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Society of Arts + Crafts in Boston where he led the orga­ni­za­tion through a pivotal time in its long and vener­a­ble history. He also served as the Exhi­bi­tions Direc­tor at the Society and as Asso­ciate Curator at Cran­brook Art Museum in Bloom­field Hills, Michi­gan. Fernán­dez has planned and executed national exhi­bi­tions that presented fresh explo­rations into the concep­tual, tech­ni­cal, and mate­r­ial approaches of contem­po­rary makers. He serves as a Trustee of the Haystack Moun­tain School of Crafts in Maine, and he holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Cran­brook Academy of Art in Michi­gan and a Bach­e­lor of Science degree in busi­ness from Seton Hall Univer­sity in New Jersey.

Keunho Peter Park’s artis­tic work centers around func­tional objects, furni­ture, musical instru­ments, and sculp­ture. Park holds a BFA in paint­ing from Kookmin Univer­sity in his home country of South Korea, and an MFA in Wood­work­ing and Furni­ture Design from the Rochester Insti­tute of Tech­nol­ogy. Park won the Wharton Esher­ick Museum Excel­lence in Wood Award at the Philadel­phia Museum of Art Craft Show in 2015 and served as a Windgate resi­dent artist at Indiana Univer­sity of Penn­syl­va­nia. He currently teaches wood­work­ing and furni­ture making at the Univer­sity of the Arts and has taught work­shops at craft schools includ­ing Penland School of Arts and Crafts, Arrow­mont School of Arts and Crafts, Peters Valley School of Craft, and the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. 

THE EXHI­BI­TION

A group of works from the final jury selec­tion will be exhib­ited in the Museum’s 150 square foot visitor center gallery. All of the works in the jury selec­tion will be shared via an online exhi­bi­tion on the Wharton Esher­ick Museum’s website and through a small publi­ca­tion (see our 2021 Juried Exhi­bi­tion, Wood And…, for an idea of what that might look like). 

WEM will also host a slate of in-person and virtual public programs connected to the exhi­bi­tion. Many of the virtual public programs from this past year are also avail­able as record­ings on our website. 

The pieces may be offered for sale with a 30% commis­sion for the Wharton Esher­ick Museum; prices are set by the artist. Cash prizes of $500, $300, and $200 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place will be awarded, as well as a $100 Horace Hartshaw award for middle and high school students, and a $200 Viewer’s Choice award, voted on via WEM’s social media platforms. 

Pieces selected for the exhi­bi­tion will be displayed in a secure area and are insured by the Museum from the time of their arrival to the time of their deliv­ery to the artist or purchaser. The exhi­bi­tion will open on June 2 and run through August 28.

ENTRY PROCESS

Entrants should submit a completed entry form online. Please submit no more than 3 images for each entered piece; we recom­mend two overall images and one detail. Photographs should be JPEG or TIFF files sized at a minimum of 4 x 6 inches at 300 dpi (1200 pixels on the longest side), submit­ted online. The jury will select final­ists via your submit­ted images, so we suggest sharing images that are as high quality and well-composed as possible.

There is a $30 entry fee ($20 for Museum members; a special $30 member­ship to the museum is avail­able for artists). The fee is non-refund­able and covers the entry of up to three pieces. Addi­tional entry fees apply for more than three pieces.

The entry fee for middle and high school students is $15 and applies to current students only. Please indi­cate on the entry form if you are a current high school or middle school student to be consid­ered for the Horace Hartshaw award. Hartshaw worked along­side Wharton Esher­ick in the 1950s and 1960s. This award was created to honor his memory and encour­age wood­work­ing in younger generations.

Appli­cants can submit their work for consid­er­a­tion online here.

DEAD­LINE

The dead­line for entry is Febru­ary 4, 2022 by midnight. All entrants will be noti­fied by March 4, 2022 of the jury’s decision.

SALES

Please note on your entry form if your piece(s) are for sale. If they are not for sale, please include a value for insur­ance and your piece will be marked ​“Not for Sale” during the exhi­bi­tion. The Museum retains a 30% commis­sion of your retail price if sold.

SELECTED PIECES

If your piece is selected for the onsite exhi­bi­tion, you are respon­si­ble for ship­ping your work to the Museum. The Museum will pay the cost of ship­ping unsold pieces back to you after the exhi­bi­tion closes. You are welcome to drop off your piece before the exhi­bi­tion but if you are unable to pick up your piece after the show, you will be respon­si­ble for the cost of shipping.

Ques­tions regard­ing the annual juried show? Please contact Emily Zilber at emily@​whartonesherickmuseum.​org