Just Beautiful

Glen Arbor Arts Center [GAAC]
Exhibition Dates: January 15 – March 11, 2027
Application period: Through November 5, 2026 at 2 pm EST

Just Beautiful is an exploration of the many faces and forms of beauty expressed through visual art.

Some Thoughts

• Beauty: It’s a totally subjective call – in the eye of the beholder, and all that. What does your eye behold when your brain says, “That’s just beautiful.”
• Qualities such as harmony of composition, line, gesture, color, and perspective are classic criteria of beauty in the visual arts. What happens when the maker subverts these criteria? What results?
• And then there’s wabi sabi – a Japanese aesthetic and philosophical worldview that finds beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness. Natural cycles of decay figure into wabi sabi-ism. Authenticity trumps flawlessness.
• Beauty plays a central role in the 1994 film “Murial’s Wedding.” The titular Murial
  attends a reunion of her high school classmates, and runs into a group of Mean Girls. Now all grown up, they’ve become Mean Girl Women – for whom beauty is still currency. They resume their high school practice of tormenting the gawky Murial. The film is a primer on inner and outer beauty. Watch this clip from the final moments of the film when Murial models beauty for the Mean Girls:
  https://youtu.be/MakSGWPDFpY?si=8BGVNSuixdIqM_oz
• At the heart of the Arts & Crafts movement was the idea that everyday items should be both useful and beautiful. William Morris, the movement’s figurehead, said, “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” By that standard, a switch plate is equal in aesthetic value to an oil painting, and why not. What avenues of exploration does this guiding principle open up?
• What does a beautiful mess look like?

Looking For

Visual art in 2D + 3D, made by the applicant between 2024 – 2026. Innovative, fresh responses that move beyond the easiest answer. Surprise us.

Open To

2D and 3D work including paper, clay, fiber, metal, wood, glass, drawing, painting, printmaking, furniture, mixed media, photography, weaving, sculpture, stitchery, and more.

Size Restrictions

• 2D work should not exceed 48” in total width or 65” in total length.
• 3D work must be freestanding and easily moved, not to exceed 35 pounds. Because of companion programs planned in conjunction with the exhibition, 3D work will be occasionally and temporarily relocated in the gallery and in the GAAC.

Application Fee

Applicants may enter up to two [2] submissions for the juror’s consideration. $25 GAAC member, $35 nonmember. This is a nonrefundable fee.

Exhibition Calendar

• Exhibition runs January 15 – March 11, 2027
• Apply online: Through November 5, 2026 at 2 pm EST
• Notification of acceptance: Late November
• Shipped work deadline: January 4 – 7, 2027.
  NOTE: The GAAC is closed for the December holidays December 18, 2026 through January 3, 2027; re-opening January 4, 2027 for regular business. There will be no one present to receive commercial carrier or USPS shipments during that closed period.
• Drop-off: Friday, January 8 , 10 am – 2 pm; Saturday, January 9, 10 am – noon
• Reception: January 15, 2027, 5 – 7 pm

Juror

Pi Benio received her MFA from Eastern Michigan University. Her work has been shown regionally, including a one-person exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Art, in Chicago, New York City, and Japan. She has completed residencies at Oxbow, Ragdale, the Women’s Studio Workshop, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Pi was awarded multiple Individual Artists Grants from the State of Michigan in addition to Best of Show at the Toledo Area Artists Exhibition. She has also studied at Haystack, Penland, Arrowmont, and Anderson Ranch taking many workshops in media ranging from ceramics, fiber, woodworking, glass, papermaking, and sculpture

Pi’s works span multiple media where she incorporates a plethora of techniques into installations that voice concern for the environment and the delicate nature of life. After a long teaching career at Adrian College, she helped to found the Adrian Center for the Arts in 2015, and is now its programming director.. A firm believer in the arts as a way to enhance community, she helped to also found the Lenawee Council for the Visual Arts in 1998; and the Artalicious Art Festival in 2006. She is still active with both and serves as the Co-chair of visual arts for Artalicious.

Awards

Three awards will be given: $150 Best of Show; and two, $75 Merit Awards. These awards are made possible by Barbara and Victor Klein Art Fund.

Photographs

You may submit up to 2 works for the juror’s consideration.

You are required to submit an image of the overall work. You also have the option of providing 1 additional, detail image per work submitted. Please provide well-composed, focused images of your work. This is the work people will view online. Present your work as well as you possibly can.

• Do not photograph 2D work behind glass.
• If framed, do not include the 2D artwork’s frame in your exhibition image unless it is part of the composition vs. a finishing detail.
• The image should show ONLY the work you want considered by the juror. Please
  photograph your work in a space that is completely neutral, and does not contain
  objects that are unrelated to the work you want considered by the juror.

The Just Beautiful exhibition will be installed in the GAAC gallery, and viewable as an on line gallery on the GAAC website.

Requirements

• Work submitted must be one-of-a-kind, innovative, and original in design. Work derivative of other artists, or work created in a workshop or classroom with the
  collaboration of an instructor is not accepted.
• Images generated by artificial intelligence cannot be considered. The use of generative artificial intelligence, such as generative fill, to manipulate photos is also disallowed. All parts of the image must have been photographed by the artist who holds the copyright to the work submitted.
• An entry may be comprised of multiple units [e.g. a diptych]; but may not exceed the maximum dimensions or weights described below. If offered for sale, a single entry comprised of multiple units must be sold for one price. The individual units may not be sold separately.
• Work submitted must have been completed in the last two years [2024-present].
• Work must be gallery ready, when submitted. Paintings and other wall works should be finished or framed. Please use gallery wire. No saw tooth hanging hardware is allowed.
  NOTE: Wet paintings, work submitted on warped canvases, work that has evidence of pet hair, food stains or other marks/detritus that are not an intended part of the composition will not be exhibited. Exhibitors will be asked to bring their accepted work up to gallery-ready standards before they are allowed to be part of the exhibit.
• No work will be accepted after the dates and times for delivery listed on the prospectus.
• The artist’s contact email provided on the application must remain active during the submissions and exhibition process. The artist is responsible for checking their email for exhibition acceptance and/or decline, and other information regarding the exhibition.

Artist’s Statement | REQUIRED

Just Beautiful applicants must submit a short [100 words max] statement that provides context for looking at the artwork. How does your work respond to, and answer the creative problem at the heart of this exhibit?

Sales

• The sale price written on the application is the FINAL price if the work is accepted in the exhibition. Exhibitors may not change the sale price after the work is accepted for exhibition.
• The GAAC will retain a 40% commission on work sold during the exhibition. Artists receive 60% of the final selling price. Artists will receive payment following the close of the exhibition.

Note

The GAAC staff and Exhibitions Committee reserve the right to the final selection of work to be shown in the exhibition. Accepted work may not be removed before the close of the exhibition.

For More Information

Contact Sarah Bearup-Neal, GAAC Gallery Manager: 231-334-6112.

Apply Here