Open Call for Emerging Artists: Summer Group Exhibition
Deadline for submissions: Sun. December 1, 2024 at 11:59PM
Smack Mellon seeks artwork submissions for a summer group exhibition to be guest-curated by New York City-based writer and curator Pallavi Surana. This exhibition conceptually departs from the salt marsh—a transitional zone between terrestrial and aquatic environments that provides critical habitat for a variety of species. As ecosystems, salt marshes carry an inherent tension and exist as intermediaries: between land and sea, and between a perceived desolation and vitality. Historically, Brooklyn’s waterfront was lined with salt marshes, which were later filled in to accommodate infrastructure, buildings, and urban development. Using Smack Mellon’s location on the waterfront as an anchor, Smack Mellon seeks submissions from artists exploring themes of in-betweenness, belonging, and global movement.
The exhibition aims to address the current moment of persistent global migratory motion and displacement, and expands on Surana’s pre-existing research on how such movements can be seen through artistic modes of creation. Surana invites artists whose work engages with notions of excess, navigates interstitial spaces, reconsiders center and periphery, embraces contradictions that defy mutual exclusivity, and imagines borders as fluid and permeable. Through a focus on these perspectives and modes of making, this exhibition seeks to explore new possibilities, uncovering alternative systems of being that challenge conventional boundaries.
By approaching the salt marsh not just as a geographical feature, but as a metaphorical space, the exhibition will interrogate how these liminal landscapes resonate with broader global narratives—spaces of refuge, tension, and transformation. In doing so, the exhibition hopes to allow space for a layered examination of how artists grapple with identity, place, and belonging, while being rooted in a complex historical and environmental framework.
If needed, artists can relate to keywords like:
- Tension
- Density
- Porous borders
- In-between
- Slippages
- Permeability
- Motion
- Plurality
To submit your artwork to this call, please be prepared with the following information and documents:
- Up to 3 images of your work that you wish to be included, and/or similar artworks.
- Images must be labeled in the following format:
- Lastname_Firstname_01.jpg
- Lastname_Firstname_02.jpg.
- etc.
- Up to 2 video excerpts may be included–each video can be 3 minutes maximum. Video submissions will be reviewed for up to 3 minutes, and not over.
- Please note that the videos should NOT include documentation of still artworks or exhibitions. Only time-based, moving-image, and/or performance-based works will be reviewed as video submissions.
- A corresponding image list document with the following information: title, date, medium, dimensions, and up to 100 words each of contextual information. (PDF only.)
- Brief artist statement (150-200 words. PDF only.)
- Current CV (PDF only.)
Artists will be notified in March 2025.
Details and Eligibility
This call is only open to emerging artists. We define an emerging artist as one who is at the beginning of their public artistic career and would greatly benefit from the opportunities we provide. Artists may have some experience participating in group shows, solo shows at lesser-known art spaces, some press recognition, and/or are recent graduates of BFA or MFA programs. We do not consider artists emerging if they have had solo exhibitions at widely recognized galleries or institutions; already received consistent production opportunities, awards, and press; and/or if they have 10 years or more of consistent public experience/exposure as an artist. Age is not a determining factor. We understand the ambiguity of some of these terms, but hope they offer insight into our selection considerations.
Artists cannot be enrolled in degree-seeking programs at the same time as this exhibition.
Smack Mellon can offer a small stipend for participation in this exhibition, which will be determined by the Curator once all artists are selected. We do not have the funds to commission new artworks. We also do not have a budget for shipping, transportation, or on-site production, and therefore we prioritize artists living and working in the greater New York area. Smack Mellon hires a small art handling team for each exhibition installation and de-installation, but artists are responsible for providing Smack Mellon with instructions on safe handling. Artists are expected to be on-site for the installation and de-installation of their work unless other arrangements have been made with the Curator and Smack Mellon’s staff. Artists are expected to arrange safe and timely transport of their works to and from the gallery.
Curator
Pallavi Surana is an arts writer and curator currently based in New York. In her curatorial practice, Pallavi is particularly interested in drawing on transnational histories and migratory movements. She is drawn to artistic practices that are cluttered, dense and visually fragmented—practices that come together and fall apart at dizzying speeds—kaleidoscopic, and in constant motion. She has held positions at SculptureCenter and Hessel Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Art and Photography (MAP), Flint, and St+India Foundation in India; as well as the Cookhouse Gallery and the Camden Arts Centre in London. Her writing has appeared in publications like Eflux Criticism, ARTnews, The Art Newspaper and Ocula, among others.
Image: Installation view, Spiral Time curated by Alex Santana, 2024. Photo by Etienne Frossard
