UB MFA Artists in Hallwalls' Draw Rally

This amazing twice annual event provides a platform for artists to reveal their techniques to an animated audience, and follows with a silent auction of the works. 

Bravo to our MFA Alumni, Joel Brenden, Kyle Butler, Ruby Merritt, Cristiano Pereira, Rachel Shelton, Dana Tyrell, Sara Zak, and by our two current MFA Candidates, H Boone, and Joel Mulindwa, and all the other local artists who participated!

Thank you @hallwalls for another great Draw!

WHAT IS IT?

Since February 2012, Hallwalls has organized 26 drawing rallies, featuring regional and international artists engaging in live drawing sessions, each lasting 45 minutes with 18 artists per session. Two pandemic Zoom editions were exceptions to the live format. Completed drawings are auctioned online, with opening bids starting at $39. Despite the overwhelming enthusiasm of participating artists, there is a continuous influx of new contributors for each rally. Curator John Massier notes the event's popularity, originally intended to be annual but transitioned to a biannual model due to demand. Artists approach the event seriously, often with pre-planned drawings, and use various media except for oil paints. The absence of a theme allows artists creative freedom, and all drawings are done on provided 12 x 18 inch archival paper, with no preparatory marks allowed before the clock starts.

THE DETAILS

The drawing event consists of two sessions: the first from 7:15 to 8:00 pm and the second from 8:15 to 9:00 pm. Bidding for all artworks starts when the event kicks off and is exclusively conducted online at draw.cbo.io. Bidding runs for 26 hours until Thursday, Augsut 1 ending at 9:00 pm

Hallwalls Mission:

A. To provide a center for contemporary art.

B. To recognize and serve a vital community artistic presence which is global in its outlook, challenging in its ideas, pluralistic in its concerns, and diverse in its expression. Hallwalls' twofold mission is to serve artists by supporting the creation and presentation of new work in the visual, media, performing, and literary arts, and to serve the public by making these works available to audiences. We are dedicated in particular to work by artists which challenges and extends the traditional boundaries of the various art forms, and which is critically engaged with current issues in the arts and—through the arts—in society. Finally, we believe that the right of freedom of expression for artists, and for free access to their works by interested individuals, must be protected as a fundamental and necessary condition of our mission.