It's good to be back!
Discover more from Young Space
Hi! It’s Kate. It’s been a minute, right!? Firstly, the nuts and bolts: you’re receiving this newsletter because at some point in the last few days or years, you opted to receive email updates from Young Space. If you would no longer like to receive them, you can unsubscribe at the bottom of this note. But first, I hope you’ll take a moment to see what’s new.
What you’ll find here:
A little intro to the new Young Space
Featured artist: Kambui Olujimi’s rollicking new paintings
Six exhibitions on view this week in California, Austria, the U.K., France, and Germany
Ten opportunities for artists with deadlines coming up soon
Hello, again!
When I started Young Space in 2014 (!?), in a dorm room at the University of Edinburgh, we were at the dawn of the smartphone—and with it, social media. I started out by sharing artwork I saw at shows or art fairs, simply featuring what I really liked, and over time time, Young Space became a go-to resource for artists, collectors, curators, galleries, and publications seeking exciting work and ideas. This is the thing I’m still most proud of today, and it’s been fundamental in laying the groundwork for projects like Dovetail Magazine and lots of curatorial projects.
After a bit of a break—blame it on the pandemic, needing to find some direction, a roundtrip move abroad—Young Space is back… and back to its foundations. Young Space is for artists. Moving forward, I plan to really emphasize what has always made it most meaningful, especially for early-career and emerging artists: opportunities, exhibition highlights, and insights into studio practices around the world. Substack feels like the right home, at the right time, for the next chapter in this project.
Each week, I’ll send a curated roundup of exhibitions, grant and residency applications, artist features, interviews, and more. (Right now, there isn’t a way to apply for a feature or listing, but that’ll happen soon.) All selections and opinions are mine because, well, I think they’re great and want to spread the word. If I ever decide to include anything that’s sponsored, I’ll be sure to let you know.
I hope you enjoy the first issue, and thanks again for your support over the years! I’m super stoked to be revving this back up. See you in your inbox!
Free subscribers receive one roundup every other week (twice each month). Paid subscribers will receive one per week, chock full of even more must-see shows, opportunities, and news.
Feature: Kambui Olujimi
Each week, Young Space features a look into an artist’s practice or a cool project, from studio insights and interviews to special events and releases.
In my experience, the most exciting and rewarding aspect of art-viewing comes when a technique or concept tugs at something familiar, but it also feels totally fresh, or reveals something that I previously didn’t know much about. That’s what I love about Brooklyn-based artist Kambui Olujimi’s new mixed-media paintings, which dive into the phenomenon of dance marathons in the U.S. in the 1920s and 1930s.
At the time, along with the revival of the Olympics a couple of decades earlier, endurance tests and feats of strength captured the popular imagination. What began as a few record-breaking attempts in 1923 led to a flurry of competitions that offered increasingly substantial winnings. During the Depression-era 1930s, the marathons boomed, often providing food, shelter, and the opportunity to earn cash prizes—contestants could win the equivalent of a year’s salary, in some cases. I can’t help but draw comparisons between this century-old fad and today’s reality television shows, founded on an predilection for watching people’s struggles as entertainment.
Olujimi’s works dive into this unique period of American history, capturing frenetic movement, intimate embraces, and ephemera like tickets or promotional posters in washy, dramatic compositions. Figures and text overlap like memories or archives, blurring into one another, simultaneously electric and forever swaying in the haze of memory.
You can see Olujimi’s new work in All I Got To Give at Vielmetter Los Angeles through December 23.
Exhibitions
PARIS | CRÈVECOEUR
Kyoko Idetsu
Dramatic narratives unfold in Kyoko Idetsu’s enigmatic paintings, characterized by outsized personalities and scenarios that toy with memory and perception.
Runs through December 16
SAN FRANCISCO | ROMER YOUNG GALLERY
Pamela Jordan: Duet
I’ve long been a fan of Pamela Jordan’s stained, shaped canvases. In this exhibition, she reimagines the diptych.
Runs November 2 - December 17
LOS ANGELES | MAKE ROOM
Guimi You: Winter Blossom
The Seoul-based artist’s second solo exhibition with Make Room explores the blurred boundary between interiority and landscape, memory and the present.
Runs through December 2
VIENNA | STRABAG KUNSTFORUM
Peter Cvik: Hopeless Romantic
Cvik’s paintings merge imagined architectural spaces and cityscapes with the intimate moments of memory.
Runs through November 10
BERLIN | WENTRUP
Marion Verboom: Megaron
Recalling totemic or ritualistic objects, Marion Verboom’s sculptures are a celebration of diverse materials.
Runs through December 3, 2023
LONDON | HUXLEY PARLOUR
Nadine Ijewere: Anthesis
Huxley Parlour’s Swallow Street location hosts the debut U.K. exhibition of innovative portrait and fashion photographer Nadine Ijewere.
Runs through November 25
Artist Opportunities
Deadlines are coming up soon to apply for these grants, fellowships, residencies, and more.
Squeaky Wheel Workspace Residency
Deadline: November 3
Squeaky Wheel’s Workspace Residency is a project-based residency for artists and researchers working in media arts. Offered twice per year, the residency is open to applicants from Buffalo, New York, and across the United States who are seeking resources, time, and support for ongoing projects or the creation of new work. Selected artists receive $1,200 in artist fees and stipends; travel and accommodations; and optional $900 financial assistance for disability or childcare.
Submission fee: none
Field Works Fall Open Call
Deadline: November 4
Artist-run space Field Projects invites emerging and mid-career artists to submit their work for consideration for a group exhibition. All submissions will also be considered for the an accompanying online exhibition, plus future solo shows, art fairs, group shows, off-site projects, a feature in Field Magazine, a feature on social media, and the studio visit program (NY Artists).
Submission fee: $35
Stanley Bleifeld Memorial Grant
Deadline: November 6
This annual $5,000 prize sponsored by the National Sculpture Society is awarded to a sculptor who has demonstrated outstanding ability, and who has created a body of work inspired by nature, made in the round and bas-relief.
Submission fee: none
Smack Mellon Emerging NY Curator Open Call
Deadline: November 10 (extended from an earlier deadline)
Open to curators based in the greater New York area, Smack Mellon seeks proposals for their annual Emerging Artists Summer Group Exhibition. The exhibition will take place across Smack Mellon’s two gallery spaces and is slated to open during the summer of 2024. The organization offers a $2,000 curatorial fee, and artist honoraria will be within the range of $250-500 per artist.
Submission fee: none
Wherewithal Grants for D.C. Artists
Deadline: November 14
Artists based within the greater D.C. area are eligible to apply for Washington Project for the Arts’ (WPA) $7,500 Wherewithal Grants to support ongoing or new projects that embrace unconventional or D.I.Y. values. Selected projects will be presented publicly in the D.C. during the grant period. Project & Presentation grants are intended to directly support artists presenting work in spaces beyond commercial galleries, museums, or established non-profit art spaces.
Submission fee: none
VisArts Art + Social Justice Fellowship
Deadline: November 27
This year-long fellowship is an opportunity to explore how thoughtfully curated art, dialogue, communication, and collaborations between artists and communities can productively navigate political flashpoints, chronic systemic inequities, and entrenched perspectives to inspire change towards a more equitable, just, and inclusive society. Fellow receives free private studio access along with a $6,000 stipend (paid over 12 months), professional development opportunities and community engagement, and an exhibition/presentation/site activation in VisArts’ Common Ground Gallery.
Submission fee: none
Asian Cultural Council 2024 Grants and Fellowships
Deadline: November 30
The Asian Cultural Council is committed to advancing international dialogue, mutual understanding, and respect through supporting cultural exchange projects by individuals and organizations between Asia and the U.S. and between Asian countries. The 2024 grant cycle is a global open call. ACC will accept applications from individuals and organizations based in Asia and the United States. Four opportunities have applications open now:
New York Fellowship
Individual Fellowship
Graduate Fellowship
Organization Grant
Submission fee: none
Jan Van Eyck Academie Open Call for 2025 Residency
Deadline: December 1
Artists, curators, designers—ranging from graphic and fashion to food and social design—researchers, writers, and architects may apply for an 11-month residency from January 15 to December 15, 2025, at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL. 32 to 35 spots are available each year; the enrolment fee amounts to €2,750 (excl. VAT), and participants receive a monthly stipend of €1,000 and a working budget of €2,000 annually.
Submission fee: none
VisArts Emerging Curator Program 2024
Deadline: December 8
VisArts invites applications from emerging curators to work with an experienced mentoring curator to develop and present an exhibition at VisArts in the Kaplan Gallery in the fall of 2024.
Submission fee: none
Center for Craft Residency for Western North Carolina Artists
Deadline: December 15
The WNC Center for Craft Artist Residency will provide two Western North Carolina (WNC) based artists with time, space, and resources to tend to their artistic practices. Each resident will receive a $10,000 honorarium, a $2,000 materials/professional development stipend, daily access to a 200 square foot studio space and shared studio resources, a Flex Desk Cowork pass in the Center for Craft’s National Hub, as well as monthly downtown parking or bus fare stipend.
Submission fee: none
This is one of your twice-monthly free editions of the Young Space digest. Become a paid subscriber and receive a fresh roundup every week. Your subscription supports independent publishing here and on Young Space’s sibling project Dovetail. Thank you!