Red Bull Charges Toward Recycling

Recycling takes on a whole new meaning this spring as Red Bull Art of the Can announces its 2006 nationwide search for artwork made from Red Bull cans.

Selected works will be displayed in one of three public exhibitions this fall in Atlanta, Dallas and Minneapolis. A grand prize winner will be selected in each city and will be awarded an all-expense-paid trip for two to Art Basel, a modern and contemporary art fair in Basel, Switzerland. Individual and group submissions are welcome. Entry deadlines and submission and exhibition information is available at www.redbullartofthecan.com.   

The first U.S. Red Bull Art of the Can contest was in Boston in 2005. Four hundred artists from 44 states and 11 countries registered works. Thirty-three of the best pieces were displayed in a public exhibition at the Artist for Humanity Epicenter and can be viewed online at www.redbullartofthecan.com. Other Red Bull Art of the Can contests have been held in Austria, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, South Africa and Switzerland.

The contestants are asked to use Red Bull cans in their artwork, but there are no constraints on creativity. Entries from past Art of the Can contests have included a wall-mounted marlin, a delicately crafted corset, a human-sized interactive kinetic puppet and a pin-art-style sculpture constructed with more than 1,500 Red Bull cans.

A panel of judges and art critics will determine the top winners in each of the three cities. Their decisions will be based on creative concept, or the overall idea behind the piece; conceptual execution, or how well the piece translated the concept idea; and construction, or how well the piece is made and any special effort that went into it.

Interested artists can register at www.redbullartofthecan.com and select one city where their works can be considered. For the Atlanta competition, artists must register by July 22 for the Oct. 14 – 31 public exhibition. Those registrants interested in participating in the Dallas contest must also register by July 22 for the Oct. 21-Nov. 5 exhibition, while those interested in participating in Minneapolis should register by Aug. 5. Minneapolis exhibition dates have yet to be announced.