The Big Show is Lawndale Art Center's annual open-call, juried exhibition. Since the show's conception in 1984, it has become an important venue through which emerging and under-represented Houston area artists gain exposure. The Big Show was formerly the East End Show, sponsored by the East End Progress Association, at Lawndale's original location. In 2013, Lawndale received 922 submissions by 366 artists. Guest Juror, Duncan Mackenzie, Artist/Critic/Writer and Co-Founder of Bad at Sports, selected 83 works by 67 artists for the exhibition. 

Each year Lawndale Art Center invites a different guest juror to select the work submitted by artists living within 100 miles of Houston.  Artists are invited to bring up to three works of art, not previously shown in Houston, to Lawndale Art Center where the work is juried on-site for a chance to be included in the show and a shot at $3,000 in cash awards. Emerging artists selected for The Big Show have received gallery representation and greater exposure for their work as a result. Buster Graybill, award recipient for the Big Show in 2009, was selected to participate in Artpace San Antonio's International Artist-in-Residence program in 2010. Eileen Maxson, recipient of the Texas Prize in 2005 first exhibited her winning video in the Big Show 2003. First Prize in the 2003 Big Show went to Robert Pruitt whose work was included in the 2006 Whitney Biennial. 

ABOUT THE GUEST JUROR

Erin Elder is the Visual Art Director of Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe. Prior to taking this post in 2012, she worked as an independent curator, writer, and teacher for over twelve years, cultivating interests in experimental collaboration, sense of place, and expanded notions of culture. Her research has focused on counter-cultural education and art practices, with particular interest in those activities happening in the 1960s American Southwest. Her writing has been published by University of Minnesota Press, University of Houston Press, Proximity Magazine, and more. She has produced projects with a variety of institutions including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, W�rttembergischer Kunstverein, Creative Time, the Center for Land Use Interpretation, International Symposium on Electronic Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver. She is a visiting lecturer at numerous schools and universities and has served as juror or reviewer for many international forums. Since 2009, she has cooperatively run PLAND, an off-the-grid residency program near Tres Piedras, NM. Erin holds dual self-designed BAs from Prescott College, and an MA in Curatorial Practice from California College of the Arts. She has been to Houston twice before and was very, very impressed.