A wooden sculpture by Michael Yankowski, professor of art at Northwestern Sate University, was accepted into the ninth annual Art Melt juried competition, the largest multi-media juried exhibit in Louisiana. Yankowski’s oak and mixed media sculpture entitled “Spiritus” deals with life, death and the eternity of the spirit. Yankowski incorporated carved, fabricated and found objects as well as oil paint in this work. Doors swing open and hidden compartments reveal symbolic objects and images.

Art Melt will take place in downtown Baton Rouge from 5-10 p.m. Saturday, July 14. All artwork accepted to the competition will hang in the Shaw Center for the Arts, and remain up and open to the public for four weeks following the event. The Art Melt Marketplace will take place outside the show gallery in downtown Baton Rouge.

The Forum 35 Art Melt strives to promote professional artists throughout Louisiana, while providing an opportunity for the public to experience the best of local fine art, music, performing arts and culinary creation. The competition is open to all Louisiana artists.

There were 632 entries submitted by 235 artists with only 65 pieces accepted.

The panel of three professional jurors who selected the exhibit were Franklin Sirmans from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Ron Platt, Birmingham Museum of Art and Thomas Neff of Louisiana State University. All pieces submitted were presented blindly and independently to each juror. Submissions were ranked on a scale of 1-7 by each juror and then cumulatively ranked based upon overall ranking by all jurors.

To see more of Yankowski’s work, visit michaelyankowski.com.