At Craft Alliance, we believe that craft has the power to inspire, connect, and transform lives. 

At times, paper is often thought as a vehicle for other artistic practices. This exhibit embraces the transformational quality of paper and the art created using paper as a primary material. Juried by Craft Alliance’s inaugural Visiting Artist, Buzz Spector, this exhibition brings together compelling work on a seemingly simple material and craft form. CUT/FOLD/PRESS asks paper artists to explore and consider the many forms that paper art takes—books, sculpture, and sheet. 

The exhibition is for artists who use paper as their primary medium or create artworks made on, of, or about paper including cut paper, folded paper, woven paper, glued paper, drawings, paintings, pastels, printmaking, photographs, paper sculpture, 3D, bound books, collage, or as the subject of a video and installation.

Juror: 

Buzz Spector is an artist, writer and emeritus professor of art at Washington University in St. Louis. His academic career includes five years’ service as dean of the College and Graduate School of Art in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts (2009–2013). Spector has also taught at Cornell University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a full professor and at numerous institutions as visiting or adjunct faculty. 

Spector’s art practice makes frequent use of the book, both as subject and object, and focuses on relationships between public history, individual memory and perception. He has had numerous exhibits in private and institutional galleries and museums in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and his solo or two-person museum exhibits have taken place at the Saint Louis Art Museum; Art Institute of Chicago; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Huntington Museum of Art, West Virginia; Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California; Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and most recently, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL. 

Spector has also published two books, Buzzwords (Sara Ranchouse Publishing, 2012) and The Book Maker’s Desire (Umbrella Editions, 1994). He has also written numerous exhibition catalog essays, including for exhibits by Luis Camnitzer, Ann Hamilton, Dan Ramirez and Dieter Roth. 

Additionally, Spector received the College Art Association’s Distinguished Teaching of Art award in 2013. 

 About Craft Alliance: 

Craft Alliance, located in The Maker District of  St. Louis, is a hub for artists, enthusiasts, and students to explore, learn, and celebrate the world of contemporary craft. We offer studios for ceramics, print and paper arts, metals, fibers, glass, wood, an artists-in-residence program, robust community programs, and an exhibition program.

Key Dates: 

Call dates: November 4th, 2024-January 22, 2025

Exhibition dates: March 14th - April 25th, 2025

Applicants notified by: January 29th, 2025

Work delivered by: February 28th, 2025

Sales: 

All work submitted should be available for sale. Any sales during the length of the exhibition will be transferred to the artist after Craft Alliance takes a 50% commission of the total sale. Please include the price of work, and account for the 50% commission, in your CaFE account portfolio/artwork image details.

Shipping and Drop-off: 

Artists should make arrangements for works to arrive on site at Craft Alliance no later than February 28th, 2025.  Artists are responsible for shipping works to Craft Alliance and for insuring shipped work for its full value. Craft Alliance will pay for return shipping in the event that works do not sell. Unsold artwork will be shipped back to artists by May 12th, 2025.

Application Requirements

Please submit:

• High resolution images of 3 pieces for consideration
• A pdf containing a bio, a cv, and artist statement
• An entry fee of $30 and $10 for each additional piece you would like to submit

Eligibility Criteria

The competition is for artists who use paper as their primary medium or create artworks made on, of, or about paper including cut paper, folded paper, woven paper, glued paper, drawings, paintings, pastels, printmaking, photographs, paper sculpture, 3D, bound books, collage, or as the subject of a video and installation. Current Craft Alliance staff or board members are ineligible.