Since graduating this past spring, MCAD MFA Alum Jonathan Aller '18 has been incredibly hard at work, both within his personal practice and profession. During June, Jonathan participated in a self-administered Portrait-a-Day challenge where he held himself to draw one ballpoint pen portrait every day of that month. He was hired by MCAD as an Adjunct Instructor for drawing. And throughout this time, Jonathan has been applying to (and winning!) art competitions. Most recently his piece "Mis Hijos Son Mi Mundo" won 1st place in Liquitex Artist Materials's Emerging Artist's competition. We caught up with Jonathan to talk to him about the world of art competitions and his accomplishments thus far. How did you first start applying for these competitions? I started during my last semester of graduate school. I had a good number of paintings that were ready to go. From that point on I just found as many competitions as I could and submitted. Tell us a little about the awards you have won so far: I was a semifinalist for the BP Portrait competition in London, England. I submitted "Siempre En Movimiento" for that competition. I won first place at the Dilusional Art Competition as part of their Emerging Artist Competition that was sponsored by Liquitex and hosted by the Jonathan LeVine Gallery. It's currently showing in New Jersey at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery for the month of August, along with the other finalist from the show. It's been a personal goal of mine to show at the LeVine Gallery so you can imagine how excited I was and still am. The painting that won was "Mis Hijos Son Mi Mundo". I was accepted as a finalist for the XL Caitlin Art Competition. I also submitted "Siempre En Movimiento" for this competition. The XL Caitlin competition accepts graduate students who are in their final year, and they only accept 40 finalists. My painting will be traveling as part of the show to San Francisco Art Institute, then to Chicago at the Linda Warren Projects gallery, and finishing at the New York Academy of Art. I also have a painting, "La Mirada", that was accepted into the Minnesota State Fair. I'm really not sure how they were juried, I do know a lot of the jury members are curators from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, and also from the Gagosian Gallery in NY. Amy Sherald is also a Juror along with other artists that are on the panel. This is specifically for the XL Caitlin exhibition. The BP portrait competition, they have curators from the National Portrait Gallery and the TATE museum jury the show. For the Jonathan LeVine gallery, they have a set of jurors based in NY as well, their website has more of their information. What competitions are you still in consideration for and which pieces did you submit? I'm currently working on a painting for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition that is held by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. What have you learned from this submission process? Submit your work to everything you can find. You will get rejected a lot, but that feeling is what fuels me to get better and keep applying. Do you have any advice for people interested in submitting work to competitions? Don't be discouraged if you don't get accepted. Keep pushing your work out there. Photos by Jonathan Aller and Shun Jie Yong For more information: Jonathan AllerBP Portrait competitionLiquitex Artist MaterialsOutwin Boochever Portrait Competition XL Caitlin Art Competition Categories All Alumni Alumni Spotlight Interview