LEAGUE OF IMAGINARY SCIENTISTS WINS APEXART COMPETITION

When Apexart, a nonprofit arts organization in New York, announced last year that it was accepting proposals for an international competition, it received 456 applications from arts groups in sixty-five countries. The winner would receive funding for a local art show that it would curate independently with assistance from Apexart. More than 250 jurors from around the world were invited to judge the proposals online.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the winner was announced yesterday: a Los Angeles–based group called the League of Imaginary Scientists.

“We thought their proposal was a great fit for our mission, which is to combine work from inside the art world with subjects from outside as well,” said Kerri Schootman, director of operations at Apexart. The League of Imaginary Scientists is a loose society that claims to be for “creative scientists, mechanically-inclined artists, absurdist inventors, and self-proclaimed quacks,” according to the group’s website.

The winner’s exhibition, “X, Y, Z and U,” will open June 4 at the Outpost for Contemporary Art in LA’s Highland Park neighborhood. Featured artists include Kim Abeles, Kelly Jaclynn Andres, Jason Bobe, Mackenzie Cowell, Liz Kueneke, Andrea Polli, and Chuck Varga. In New York, Apexart will provide video links and other interactive features to the LA exhibition. The entire proposal can be read here.