Michael Viera
Juror for The Contemporary Landscape
Mr. Viera earned an MFA, cum laude, in painting from the New York Academy of Art in New York City, and a BFA in painting from Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Connecticut, where he was a visiting instructor of drawing and painting in 2001-2. In 2003, Mr. Viera joined the drawing and painting faculty at Amagansett Applied Arts in Amagansett, NY. In 2007 he launched the East Hampton Academy of Art with sculptor Kimberly Monson. Michael is represented by Peter Marcelle. "I would say art work that has inspired my landscapes would range from paintings by George Inness and John Henry Twachtman to Josef Albers and David Hockney."
Peter Marcelle
Juror for The Creative Process
Peter Marcelle has been in the business of art since he was 16 years old. While still in his teens he became acquainted with Andrew Wyeth and later brokered the “Helga” paintings. Today, Mr. Marcelle owns and runs Peter Marcelle Contemporary Galleries in Southampton and on 72nd Street in New York. His personal tastes in art are quite eclectic, ranging from Andrew and Jamie Wyeth to Ellsworth Kelly. He is also a big admirer and owner of Jean Michelle Basquiat and Bo Bartlett’s work. His main concern is that art be original. Peter has a website you can visit at: www.petermarcellecontemporary.com
Robert Armetta
Juror for The Face
Robert Armetta has studied extensively throughout the United States and Europe, at schools including Columbus College of Art and Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Atelier Lack, the Florence Academy of Art, the New York Academy of Art, and the Water Street Atelier.
He has exhibited at the Allen Sheppard Gallery, Grenning Gallery, Arcadia Gallery, John Pence Gallery, Nabi Gallery, and Seraphin Gallery, National Academy of Design, in New York City, and the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, in Indiana.
He has taught drawing and painting at Long Island University, Southampton, and currently teaches drawing and painting at the New York Academy of Art and the Long Island Academy of Fine Art, in Riverhead, New York, which he founded in 2000. His own studio is in Brooklyn, where he lives with his wife and daughter.
The works of art that he admires are numerous, and span the last several hundred years, from the Renaissance portraits of Raphael to the twentieth-century portraits of Pietro Annigoni. Armetta believes that sound draftsmanship, form, and color are among the key elements of successful painting.
Ruth Stevens Appelhof, Ph. D.
Juror of The Face
With over two decades of museum and art world experience, Ruth Appelhof, Ph.D. is one of the leading museum and public-programming advocates in the United States. Since her introduction to museums as a Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1980, she has served as a chief curator, executive director, and program consultant for public institutions and private collectors across America. Since 1999, Dr. Appelhof has been the executive director of Guild Hall in East Hampton, a nationally respected museum, theater and educational facility. This diverse arts institution is located on the East End of Long Island, in a region well known as an artists’ colony (since Winslow Homer visited in the 1800’s) and as a playground for some of the great talents of our time.
Dr. Appelhof was the chief curator of the Lowe Art Gallery at Syracuse University; she held the same position at the Birmingham Museum, where she was instrumental in developing an important contemporary art collection as well as one of the most comprehensive holdings in photography in the south. Art museums in Roanoke, Virginia and St. Paul, Minnesota experienced ‘turn-arounds’ as a result of Dr. Appelhof's artistic vision, strong fundraising ability, and professional management practices. In addition, significant donations and targeted purchases from leading auction houses and galleries made possible major additions to the permanent collections of these various institutions.
Museums have all benefited from Dr. Appelhof's talents as a curator, advisor and lecturer. Writing scholarly essays and selecting works for exhibitions has been a life-long pursuit; as one of the most outstanding curators in this country, Dr. Appelhof has launched a number of new ideas into the art world. Among them is the identification of the influence of Kandinsky and the Fauves on the work of the artists in the Stieglitz Circle, such as Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, and Georgia O'Keeffe.
As a professor at the State University of New York at Auburn and then at Syracuse University, Dr. Appelhof taught art history, museum management, curatorial methodology and collections development for public institutions on both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
In the areas of twentieth century American and European art, Dr. Appelhof has published over thirty essays, as well as her dissertation on the American Modernist movement. Her curatorial insights into the art of the New South shaped the 1999 Millennium Exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts titled Voices Rising. She is featured in Who's Who In American Art and Who's Who In America.
At Guild Hall, Dr. Appelhof is leading a 77 year-old institution with a growing reputation as a launch pad for contemporary artistic endeavors. Engaging a large number of the artists and actors in the area, Guild Hall provides both a historical reference to the art of the past and an experimental approach to visual and performing arts.
