Buenaventura Art Association announces a “Call for Entries” for the 27th Annual Open Competition at the Buenaventura Gallery in downtown Ventura’s cultural district. The exhibit will run from January 8 through January 26, 2013. Deadline for entries is midnight December 31, 2012. Over $1,500 in cash prizes and membership benefits will be awarded at a reception and ceremony on Saturday, January 12 from 4 – 7 pm, including a $400 top prize for Best of Show. Katrina McElroy, art instructor at Moorpark College, will be the juror.

McElroy earned her Master of Fine Arts with distinction from California State University at Northridge. She received her BA in Fine Art from Reed College in Portland, Oregon and studied at Il Bisonte, International School of Graphic Arts in Florence, Italy. McElroy creates in several media, from prints to paintings, photography and video. Her work has been shown in galleries in Miami and Los Angeles, as well as galleries on the campuses of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Chapman College in Orange, CA.

McElroy teaches two dimensional design and art appreciation at Moorpark College, as well as sculpture during summer sessions at CalArts in Valencia. Most of her current work, however, has been video and photographic installations. McElroy states that her work “addresses the tendency to analyze, compartmentalize, organize and manipulate emotion despite of, and because of, its persistence, cyclical nature and its ability to overwhelm.” In creating her work, McElroy captures spontaneous, private moments, often of herself, in moments of extreme emotion. She manipulates and rearranges the thousands of video stills from these clips into compositions and installations that deny the viewer a linear narrative. Instead, she says, “the result is an abstraction, a systematic disorganization (and reorganization) of time that in some ways more closely resembles the truth and memory of the actual moment.” To see Katrina McElroy’s art go to www.katrinamcelroy.com.

The competition is open to all artists in Central and Southern California. A prospectus may be downloaded from the Buenaventura Art Association’s website at www.buenaventuragallery.org. Entries must be submitted electronically and uploaded online at the same website.

The Buenaventura Gallery is located at 700 E Santa Clara St. in downtown Ventura. Hours are Tues – Friday from 12 – 5 pm and Saturday from 11 am to 5 pm. For more information visit the website at www.BuenaventuraGallery.org.

About the Buenaventura Art Association
Buenaventura Art Association (BAA) is a non-profit, foundational arts organization in Ventura – a 58-year-old institution devoted to sustaining Ventura County’s cultural and artistic resources by developing visual artists in all stages of their careers. BAA was started in 1954 by a group of Ventura community, civic and business leaders who recognized the importance of the arts in all communities and wanted to encourage and foster Ventura’s cultural growth. BAA runs two galleries – the Buenaventura Gallery in downtown Ventura at 700 E. Santa Clara St., and the Harbor Village Gallery, 1591 Spinnaker Dr., in the Ventura Harbor Village. BAA also collaborates with Community Memorial Hospital to exhibit art in its ground floor public corridors.