How to Win the Sixpoint Brewery "Beer is Culture" Art Contest

Image Courtesy of Sixpoint Brewery

By KEN KRANTZ July 17th, 2026

Long before I was scouring third spaces for micro-communities at the forefront of art-tech innovation, I was planning to quit my job at an advertising agency. To that end, I spent the sweltering Barbenheimer-frenzied summer of 2023 taking shots at any mildly promising creative opportunity without an entry fee. Entering Sixpoint Brewery’s annual Beer is Culture Art Show was my ultimate expression of creative freedom during that time.

To the shock of many, including myself, I won. It was the push I needed to lean into my creativity. Last year’s winner, Em Teng, caught the same lightning in a can: “Winning the Sixpoint Art Show last year was an incredible experience… It's given me the confidence and momentum to push myself even further with my art, which has led to me publishing my debut comic and having my first solo art exhibition!"

Also, winning can pay your rent. The first-place winner takes home $2,000 in cash, artwork featured on a Sixpoint can, and a seat on next year’s judging panel. There are also cash prizes for the second, third, and fourth place winners. To be paid so handsomely for your art is nothing to sneeze at. Satellite Art Gallery’s Brian Andrew Whiteley, who will be hosting the popup exhibition where the public votes for the winner, puts it bluntly: “The Sixpoint art contest provides both financial and exposure opportunity (unlike most other art contests). This is something that I would have killed to win as a young artist.”

Whiteley is correct, but there is no need to commit homicide. While you can certainly approach this competition in an impassioned, late-night fugue state, you can also game it with cold, calculated precision. In most creative pursuits, my research skills far exceed my technical mastery. If you’re trying to finish your contest submission on a time crunch before the July 19th deadline, perhaps my blueprint can help you on your path to crack the competition’s Top 25:

1. Know Your Audience

The voting round is curated by a panel of working artists. Audit their digital footprint. Whiteley and David Henry Nobody Junior have a flair for countercultural dramatics. Wizard Skull is producing subversive, pop-art mashups in clean, bold colors. Em Teng, last year’s winner, creates comics. Danielle Klebes paints Americana realism, featuring classic images of leather jackets and cars. For this cohort, your entry needs tight color cohesion, legibility, and strong symbolic storytelling. 

“Working on the innovation team, we're always trying to come up with something fresh, approachable, and exciting,” explains Sixpoint Brewer and contest judge Flint Whistler. For Whistler and Nick Wickizer, the Sixpoint-affiliated judges, you’ll need authenticity. Wickizer explains, “Seeing all the art inspired by the beer we brew at Sixpoint is always exciting. The people who enter really go all out. From giant wooden cut outs to hand painted sneakers, I'm always in awe of what we can display. It helps inspire my own work to keep Sixpoint the quirky brewery that we are while staying authentic to our Brooklyn roots.” 

2. Know the Field.

Beer labels are fascinating. Some of my earliest memories of growing up in Atlanta are of flashes of color peeking out of gas station beer refrigerators. I wondered at the presence of these illustrative cryptids in the wild, free from the oppressive prisons of white walls and comic boxes. To this day, I often find myself lost among the shelves, wandering the can designs.

Certain language permeates the culture of beer design; bright colors and crisp outlines make a label pop. Commercial reality demands shelf-readability. Your image needs to pop at a distance of ten feet through a fogged-up glass door.

3. Know the Story

As Wickizer mentioned, Sixpoint is fiercely proud of its Brooklyn roots. Beyond the visual language of the brand, consider regional resonances. Gregg Emery won with an abstract work in 2024, but I cannot find a record of another non-illustrative work making the podium. The first year, more finalists included imagery of general culture, such as reimaginings of paintings and the moon landing. In more recent competitions, winners have heavily featured images incorporating beer alongside visual symbols of New York City (rats, subways, bridges, skylines, and more). 

Keep an eye on the endgame; voting takes place on August 20th at Satellite Art Gallery on the Lower East Side. Your work will need duality, translating from an aluminum can to a room of live voters. 

Mercifully, I do not believe that clout drives this competition. The Sixpoint crowd votes on merit. When I won, I only personally knew two people in the room. Some of my competitors had fanbases. 

When I critique contemporary art, my ultimate metric is functional efficacy. If it’s a painting in a retail gallery, can I envision a collector living with its energy? If it’s a public monument, does the form clearly articulate a cultural memory? And if it’s a beer label, does it trigger thirst?

Finally, believe in yourself. As someone who is notably not an illustrator, I spent ten hours producing my piece. You can probably cut that in half. The bar is set, the canvas is blank, and the clock is ticking. Good luck!

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