Battle ready

The atmosphere at an Art Battle is a far cry from the image of a solitary soul alone in their studio, painting, emoting, cutting off their ear or what have you. Instead, this public art event brings a handful of hardy artists together to duke it out acrylic-style while an audience cheers them on.

Saturday, January 12 at the Bus Stop Theatre (doors at 7:30pm. $10/$15), Art Battle Canada makes their Halifax stop, featuring Tom Smith, Kayleigh Kristiansen, Grace Simms, Desmond Dineen, Schuyler Smith and more.

Beginning in 2009, the Art Battle’s fourth season had the first National Championship July 2012. The winner from Halifax’s competition will go on to battle defending champion, Vancouver’s Yared Nigussu, in July 2013.

“The goal of the first Art Battle was to showcase painters, engage the audience and prove that not all art created is equal,” says host and co-creator Chris Pemberton.

 “It’s a really a new type of experience for both the artists and they audience, and that’s been a big part of Art Battle’s success. There’s a lot of opportunity at Art Battle to meet other people in the arts community. Painters meet other painters, work together or support each other, building their audience and having a chance to talk with people who attend shows and buy paintings.”

Given that the artists only have 20 minutes to create their pieces, the pace of these competitions is aptly described as “frenetic”. Though it may seem counterintuitive to apply a competition aspect to art practices, Pemberton believes the unique event brings a level of intensity to the entire artistic experience. Couple that with the audience votes determining the winner and any residual reality TV-style excitement is just a bonus.

“The fast pace of the event really energizes the painters, in our experience their work reflects the excitement of the audiences, each artist channels that into their expression,” says Pemberton. “Some choose to do work that closely follows their studio practice, and some try something different with the 20 minute time limit. The one thing that we always find, only one painter wins, but they all want to do it again.”