Principal Juror – Nicholas Baume, Chief Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

Editor’s Comments – When the first Northeast edition of New American Paintings was published in 1993, less than two hundred artists competed for space in the then nascent publication. For this year’s edition, our fifty-sixth book, more than one thousand artists of varying career points submitted slides. Nicholas Baume, Chief Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Massachusetts, was given the task of reviewing these entries; his forty selections are reproduced in this edition.

New American Paintings was founded as a vehicle for facilitating contact between artists and those with an interest in contemporary art. While the number of individuals attempting to make careers as professional artists has steadily increased over the past decade––Master of Fine Arts programs are now churning out hundreds of graduates every year––the amount of “wall space” to exhibit their work has not increased proportionately. New American Paintings has done its part to alleviate the problem, and, in some ways, the type of exposure that our publication offers can be more meaningful to a young artist than a gallery show. Over ten thousand individuals flip through the pages of every edition of New American Paintings, while most gallery shows are lucky to attract a few hundred visitors in a month’s time. More importantly, our audience is international in scope. This means that even artists who are established in their particular region of the country have the opportunity to break the binds of geographically limited exposure.

The art world has changed a great deal since 1993, both in terms of infrastructure and artistic output. With regard to the latter, we have a unique perspective at The Open Studios Press. Over five thousand sets of slides flow through our offices on an annual basis; consequently, there is not much that we do not see. While the days of the well-defined “ism” may be behind us at this point, there are still discernible trends and micro-trends that occasionally come to the forefront. For instance, in the mid-1990’s we saw the return of decorative abstract painting. More recently, much attention has been paid to figurative painting that evinces a certain level of crudeness, or “badness” in its execution. In both cases, the trends were on our radar long before they caught the attention of the mainstream art press.

Looking through past editions of New American Paintings, it is easy to trace some of the trends that have occupied artists in the past decade. It is also possible to encounter artists such as James Siena, Laylah Ali, and Sue-En Wong who have become internationally touted artists since their respective appearances in New American Paintings. You will find a typically diverse group of artists in this edition. Our juror, Nicholas Baume, noted the “wide range of aesthetic viewpoints” that he encountered while reviewing slides.

I would like to thank you, our readers, for your continued support. Without a broad range of interest, we could never have brought the work of these varied and accomplished artists to the attention of so many.

Steven T. Zevitas
Editor and Publisher