Surely You Jest: Humor in Art

An Open Call for Art from OCCCA.

Ever since Picabia pasted a stuffed monkey to a canvas and called it “Cezanne,” the jokes have been coming fast and furious. Whether raucous or sly, blatant or subtle --- there are so many jokesters in contemporary art, we sometimes forget to be serious. You smile when you think of Ed Ruscha, John Baldesarri, or Bruce Nauman. Everyone loves a good laugh. Some unexpected detail in a photograph might do it, the “punctum” as Roland Barthes puts it. Or maybe it is something grotesque, monstrous, that sets off nervous giggles. Magritte painted more than one epistemological scandal. From Surrealism’s dark “humor noir,” to Ryan Trecartin’s hilariously manic, gender-bending videos, humor is an indisputable force in contemporary art. The historical predecessors for today’s artists who insist on wit and ribaldry are legion. Each historical era gets the humor it deserves: biting satires, gentle parodies, jabs meant to wound, or private jokes that go viral. Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Ad Reinhardt, Andy Warhol, Richard Prince, Mike Kelley, Barbara Kruger, Raymond Pettibon, Cindy Sherman, all have shown that contemporary art can be funny --- if not always funny

ha-ha. No art critics will be harmed during the making of this exhibition. The juror will take their assignment very seriously.

Go ahead, make their day. Crack them up.

The juror

Julie Perlin Lee became the executive director of Laguna Art Museum on May 3, 2021. As the executive director of the Catalina Island Museum from 2016 to 2021, Lee led a period of growth including high-profile exhibitions and educational programs, and the completion of a capital project for the museum’s new permanent facility which opened in 2016. She was curator of the exhibitions "Elizabeth Turk: Tipping Point" in 2019 (Turk was LAM’s commissioned artist for Art & Nature in 2018) and Peter Shire, Sculptures in 2018.

T I M E L I N E

Deadline to enter: May 30, 2023

Exhibition runs from July 1 through August 22, 2023

Opening Reception: July 1, from 6 to 10 p.m.

Fees:

Minimum $45.00 for up to three JPGs.

$90.00 for six JPGs.

Maximum allowed: nine JPGs for $100.00. (A savings of $35.00)

All entry fees help support OCCCA, an artist-run, non-profit arts organization, serving the community since 1980.

To enter click: HERE