In Contrast

On Display Virtually December 15, 2025 – February 15, 2026

Awards to be announced on January 6, 2026.

View the Virtual Gallery   View the Awards   View the Juror Talk

Work on Display    Artists on Display

Introducing In Contrast

Contrast is a dynamic force in artistic expression, shaping perception, guiding emotion, and commanding attention. Whether through striking juxtapositions of light and dark, bold complementary hues, or the interplay of texture and form, contrast heightens impact and deepens meaning. It is a tool that artists have long used to create tension, harmony, and visual intrigue.

From the stark chiaroscuro of the Baroque to the electrifying oppositions in Fauvist color, contrast has played a defining role in art history. Op Art relies on optical contrast to create movement, while contemporary artists push boundaries by manipulating digital and material contrasts to challenge perception and provoke thought. In fashion and design, contrast is a marker of sophistication, think the enduring elegance of black and white or the rebellious clash of punk aesthetics. This exhibition explores contrast in its many forms, color, light, texture, subject, and concept. We invite artists working in all mediums to submit works that harness contrast as a powerful tool of artistic expression.

Any original 2D or 3D work that follows our exhibition guidelines will be considered. This includes works selected by the juror which will be exhibited in Maryland Federation of Art’s (MFA) first In Contrast Exhibition through our Virtual Gallery from December 15, 2025 – January 31, 2026.

Juror: Marcie Cooperman: Professor in the Fashion Dept. at Parsons School of Design

Marcie has a multidisciplinary career in the areas of fashion design and academia, authorship (Color: How to Use It, Pearson 2014), color theory, interior design, and fine art. She teaches Fashion Marketing, Fashion Merchandising, Social Commerce, Entrepreneurship and Color Theory classes at Parsons School of Design, and has also been a Professor of Color Theory at Pratt Institute of Design. She also teaches fashion design and fashion marketing in China at several pre-college design schools.

Marcie’s Fashion Design degree, her Stern MBA and eponymous knitwear business afford Marcie a well-rounded fashion business perspective. Marcie also owns Fresh Interiors, a bespoke interior design business, offering soup-to-nut services.

You can find Marcie Cooperman online by Googling “Color Theory expert professor”.

Juror’s Statement

In my juror’s statement, I’m going to build a verbal pyramid of levels of excellence to explain my choices and how they were made, moving from bottom up.  Since the theme for our exhibition is ‘contrast’, everything in the work contributes to the contrast, from the visual elements to the meaning we are receiving from the image.

First, I’ll address visual elements of composition that form the basic ground level of skills and strength that I am looking for in these works.

At a basic level, the composition must be balanced: There must be one focal point, and all the visual elements in the artwork must work in unity to lead the eye to the focal point.  These visual elements are color, line, shape and form, proportion, location of shapes, etc.  The focal point cannot be the only visual element that shows contrast in this composition.  The other visual elements should also contrast in their own ways.

Therefore, these other visual elements are a substantial structure of the work in the visual effect,and they are also important to helping us perceive the meaning in the work.  I am hoping that this process is sophisticated and compelling in the best entries.

– In visual effect, I would like to see the contrast concept not limited to an initial simplified color contrast (value or hue or intensity), but developed further in visual aspects such as proportion, size and location of shapes. That would mean several visual levels of contrast working together.
– And the work must also communicate that a contrast in perspective and meaning is indeed the theme.

Marcie Cooperman

Awards

Notification

All entrants will receive notification by email. Accepted artists will also be posted on MFA’s website. Artists who have unsubscribed from MFA emails will not receive notification. The notice to accepted artists will include specific details and could vary from the prospectus. Please set your email account to recognize amani@mdfedart.org and info@mdfedart.org. Contact Circle Gallery if you do not receive notice by 6 PM on the day of notification.