PULSE Miami Beach Announces Open Call for Video and New Media Artists

It can be tough for any artist get their work to a fair, but at PULSE Miami Beach, one initiative is trying to change that. PLAY is the contemporary art fair’s dedicated platform for video and new media work, and for the first time, the 2016 edition will open submissions to the public, allowing artists to bypass the traditional necessity of gallery representation—and the hassle, networking, and expense that can entail—and directly submit their work to the cutting-edge platform.

Works included in PULSE PLAY are curated by new minds each year, and this year, PULSE director Helen Toomer selected Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Jampol. The duo are known for their 2012 founding of Gateway Project Spaces, a Newark, NJ arts hub with 50,000 square feet of studio spaces, 7,000 square feet of exhibition spaces, and a multidisciplinary residency program. The space morphed out of the non-profit Project for Empty Space, which is now included in the Newark complex. As a curatorial team, Wahi and Jampol tell The Creators Project, they aim to “poke and prod” the audience, showcasing socially-engaged work by artists whose narratives might otherwise slip under the radar.

“We aren't concerned with whether an artist is the 'biggest name' in a gallery's roster, or if he/she/they has a big social media following. Our big motivator is conceptually strong, aesthetically solid, and technically sound video and new media work,” they explain.

Changing to an open call format logically follows these curatorial goals—in the past, PLAY submissions came only from galleries showing at the fair. Final selections will first be displayed at Gateway Project Spaces, and then at PULSE for the duration of the fair. For those who can’t make it to either exhibition, snippets of the works will also be hosted on PULSE’s Tumblr and other online platforms.

“We wanted to broaden our reach and provide an opportunity for all artists across the globe to exhibit alongside artists and their gallerists who are being showcased at PULSE Miami Beach,” Toomer tells The Creators Project. “We hope that this will not only allow more people to experience this aspect of PULSE, but also provide greater exposure to the PLAY artists and their works.“

PULSE Miami Beach takes place December 1-4, 2016. Find out more about PLAY, including how to submit your work, on the fair’s website.

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