“When you put a seed in the ground, it doesn't stop growing after eight hours. It keeps going every minute that it's in the earth. We, too, need to keep growing every moment of every day that we are on this earth.” —Ruth Asawa
I’ve been thinking a lot, lately, about letting go. I’m not really a New Year’s resolution type of person, but there might be something about the turn of the annual calendar—or perhaps it’s my mom’s recent mentions of Swedish death cleaning—that makes me want to organize, streamline, and get rid of anything that’s no longer essential.
One of the things I've been thinking about for a while is removing the Young Space archive from the ol’ internet. When I got my hosting renewal bill the other day (oof!) I realized there isn’t really much use holding onto something that hasn’t been updated in nearly 5 years. It was wonderful while it ran—thousands of artworks by emerging artists, interviewed in more than 800 posts between 2015 and 2020. But I’m just also not necessarily of the mind that just because something is means that it must continue… at least not just for the sake of it. So, at the end of February, it’s a fond goodbye. (Don’t worry, nothing here or on Instagram is changing!)
There’s grand significance in archives. As someone whose background and approach is grounded in art history (I stop short of calling myself an art historian), we’d be nowhere without archives. And digital records are no small thing. But it makes me wonder about availability. I think of this as being quite different from accessibility, because something that isn’t widely available may still be quite accessible.
I like to think that if things aren’t always there at the tip of our fingers, we’re able to hone in on the motivations for pursuing information and therefore, perhaps, engage with it more. It makes me think of galleries that don’t share many (or any!) images from exhibitions on their website. It’s not that you don’t have access; it’s just that you have to be intentional about wanting it. This makes interactions more meaningful, and it builds connections in the meantime. I like that sort of thing.
I’ve also decided to put Dovetail on hold indefinitely. This is a tougher decision, but after five years on-and-off, one can intuit when something has run its course. I’m so grateful for a grant that sustained the project through 2024, with the opportunity to really see through a goal I had in relaunching it a few years ago. The project has accomplished things I never imagined and introduced me to people, ideas, and places I continue to learn from.
There are times when clearing the path for the new means moving the existing things aside. I tell myself it’s part of the process of constant growth; the ability to put things down in order to explore the potential of picking other things up. Maybe completely different things. And that’s definitely the exciting bit!
See you next week.
—Kate
P.S. Lists of resources and ways to support those affected by the L.A. wildfires provide a few places to start, especially if you’re not local and still want to help.
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What you’ll find below:
Featured artist: Xei Lei
Four (but actually numerous) exhibitions to see in Berlin, Chicago, and London
Thirteen opportunities for artists with deadlines coming up soon
Featured Artist: Xei Lei
Xei Lei’s transcendental paintings in Mort heureuse at Semiose Gallery revel in dreamy settings that envelop fuzzy figures. The artist describes these figures as always "fighting, making love, dying, or being saved,” says the exhibition text. The title draws on Albert Camus’s book composed between 1936 and 1938, Le Mort Heureuse, or The Happy Death, published posthumously in 1971. Sometimes spectral or like two halves—one light, one shadow; one introspective, one exuding energy—they appear locked in intimate and metaphysical interactions.
Mort heureuse continues through March 15 in Paris.
Exhibitions
LONDON | HUXLEY PARLOUR
Catherine Repko: stars rise, moths flutter
“stars rise, moths flutter takes its title from a poem by Irish poet Eavan Boland, and alludes to the ephemerality of fleeting moments which Repko seeks to cement in her compositions.”
Runs through January 18
BERLIN | RED BY BERLINBOOKCLUB
Satoshi Fujiwara: Bleached
Kobe-born and Berlin-based artist Satoshi Fujiwara set out to capture a neo-Nazi march in Berlin Spandau commemorating the 30th anniversary of the death of Rudolf Heß, former deputy to Adolf Hitler. Disguised as an Asian tourist with a camera, Satoshi Fujiwara documented the spectacle up-close. The documentarian style of imagery interplays paradoxically with the fact that Fujiwara has obviously heavily manipulated them. Through the provocative lens of history as it continues to inform contemporary society, Fujiwara interrogates the notion of “bleaching,” from white supremacy to digitally-altered imagery to the white cube art space.
Runs through January 31
CHICAGO | DEVENING PROJECTS
Cody Tumblin: I Would Like to Step Out of My Heart
Chicago-based artist Cody Tumblin presents a body of work “gently tethered to the miraculous,” the gallery says. “Throughout his career, Tumblin has described abstraction as a tool to bind the natural world to the spiritual.”
Runs through February 8
LONDON | VARIOUS
CONDO
One of my favorite exhibition initiatives, CONDO, returns to London for a series of presentations in 22 London spaces from 49 national and international galleries. Pictured above is Georges Binda Celeste Alexandrino Gabriel Ferreira Da Silva, whose work will be on view at The Sunday Painter c/o Proyectos Ultravioleta. Preview weekend is coming up, running Saturday, January 18 to Sunday, January 19.
Runs January 18 to February 15.
Artist Opportunities
Young Space emphasizes fully-funded opportunities with low or no entry fees and programs that focus on creative and professional development for visual artists and curators. Deadlines are coming up soon to apply for these grants, fellowships, residencies, and more.
Paid subscribers, check out the whole list anytime at yngspc.com/opportunities and enter the password you received in your signup email. Can’t find it? Just shoot me a note. Thank your for your support!
Mudhouse Residency Fellowship in Crete
Deadline: January 15
The Full Fellowship Award for 2025 includes accommodations, studio space, and two meals each day for the two-week duration of the residency at no cost to the artist. The artist is responsible for their own travel to the residency and daily stipend for any groceries, art supplies, or excursions outside of the village. The Mudhouse Residency sponsors a total of two full fellowships for the 2025 season, during two residency sessions in June and July. (The regular price for the general residency is $2,600.)
Submission fee: $10
Open Call for Community Arts Initiative: The Artist Project (Boston)
Deadline: January 17
The Artist Project is a collaboration between the Museum of Fine Arts and twelve after-school community organizations in the Boston area. Each year, a new experienced artist with a passion for community arts plans and leads a project with children between the ages of six and twelve. The artist and the children create a collaborative work of art inspired by the museum’s encyclopedic collection. The MFA provides the selected artist with a stipend of $50,000 and a budget of $5,000 for materials.
Submission fee: none
Elephant Trust's Grants for Artists and Small Organizations
Deadline: January 19
The Trustees’ main objective is to support new work. Grants are usually between £2,000 and £5,000, but with the addition of the Shelagh Wakely Bequest, some larger grants may be awarded. Priority is given to artists in the fine arts and small organizations and galleries who should submit imaginative proposals for making or producing new work or exhibitions.
Submission fee: none
Don Bachardy Fellowship for Royal Drawing School Summer Term
Deadline: January 20
The Don Bachardy Fellowship at the Royal Drawing School enables a gifted and dedicated post-graduate artist from outside the U.K. to join the Royal Drawing School during the summer term each year. The fellowship gives one artist the opportunity to join London’s vibrant art scene, with the school’s Shoreditch campus and artists' studios located in the heart of East London’s art, design and fashion scene.
Submission fee: none
The Sculpture Center 2026 Revealed Emerging Artist Series Open Call
Deadline: January 27
Emerging artists of the greater Ohio region whose practices includes sculpture, installation, mixed and expanded media, relational aesthetics, and performance are eligible to apply. Revealed awards artists in the first ten years of their career the opportunity to create work for a solo show. This is a funded exhibition, and an artist honorarium will be provided in addition to gallery support.
Submission fee: none
Gardiner Museum Curatorial Residency 2025 Call for Proposals
Deadline: January 26
The Gardiner Museum Curatorial Residency provides the successful applicant with a paid opportunity to conceive, research, and produce a small-scale museum exhibition and gain experience in a professional environment in Toronto, Ontario. The aims of the residency are to support a new and diverse generation of aspiring and emerging curators by offering them an opportunity to communicate their ideas to a broad public; to promote new approaches to the study and presentation of ceramics; and to encourage innovative research on the Gardiner’s permanent collection in an international context.
Submission fee: none
Jan Van Eyck Academie Residency 2026
Deadline: January 27
Artists and designers coming from all fields, architects, curators, writers and other artistic researchers, makers and critical thinkers, including duos and collectives, are invited to apply for an 11-month residency taking place in 2026 at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Individuals, duos, collectives, as well as candidates with child(ren) are welcome to apply. The residency provides housing; a monthly stipend of €1,500 for individuals, €2,000 for participants with children), and €4,500 for collectives, from which rent is deducted; and an annual working budget of €2,000.
Submission fee: none
Teiger Foundation Grants for Curators
Deadline: January 28
Teiger Foundation's grant categories are single project, three years of programming, hosting, and curatorial research and development. The foundation has awarded over $7 million to 89 curators at organizations working in contemporary art.
Submission fee: none
Brooks International Fellowship Program 2025
Deadline: January 30
Delfina Foundation announces an open call for the annual Brooks International Fellowship Program, in partnership with Tate. Now in its eleventh year, the 2025 program will enable a visual arts professional to work with Tate colleagues in London for six months, complemented by activities at Delfina Foundation. The Fellows will reside at Delfina Foundation, where they will contribute by presenting on their research or practice to a range of audiences as well as contributing to Delfina Foundation’s public program. Opportunities in the Tate St. Ives team and the Tate Modern team are available, and both run June 23 to December 7, 2025.
Submission fee: none
Viadukt Edition Residency for Woman-Identifying Artists 40 or Older
Deadline: January 31
The Viadukt Edition Residency Program is a studio residency program in Vienna for woman* identifying artists 40 or older to create new work through exploration of printmaking with a focus on silkscreen. Residents receive 24-hour shared studio access, basic supplies, storage space, one free class in printmaking and consultations with Master Printers, weekly individual meetings, and more. Housing, transportation, or other living costs are not included.
Submission fee: none
Predoctoral Research Residencies in Naples
Deadline: January 31
The Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” invites applications for Research Residencies for PhD students in the earlier stages of their dissertations. Projects may focus on art and architectural history, music history, archeology, the digital humanities, or related fields, from antiquity to the present. Projects should address the cultural histories of Naples and southern Italy as a center of exchange, encounter, and transformation, and, most importantly, make meaningful use of local research materials including artworks, sites, archives, and libraries. Research Residencies run for the academic year (mid-September to early June). Research Residents are awarded free lodging and work space at La Capraia as well as a modest stipend of €7,000.
Submission fee: none
Rocky Mountain National Park AIR Program
Deadline: January 31
Rocky Mountain National Park's AIR program is open to artists of all creative disciplines. During their residency, selected artists will reside in a rustic cabin located inside Rocky Mountain National Park for a two-week time span, where they can gain inspiration and create artistic works. RMNP's residency will take place during a two-week window from mid-May through mid-October, weather and conditions permitting.
Submission fee: none
Rothko Museum Ceramic Laboratory 2025
Deadline: January 31
The Rothko Museum invites artists to apply to the 13th International CERAMIC LABORATORY Symposium. Organized in a close partnership with the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Ceramics, this vibrant creative forum is an open creative platform for contemporary experiments in the ceramic medium. Ten professional artists will take part. The museum covers catering and accommodation in Daugavpils (for the symposium duration); studio space (several artists share a studio); basic materials and tools; publicity (opportunity to present your portfolio; coverage in mass media); recreation (guided tours in and around the city, site visits to local art and culture institutions); and two exhibitions (to inaugurate and close the symposium).
Submission fee: none
See all opportunities
Paid subscribers can access a full list of all current opportunities anytime—updated at least a couple of times each week.
Whether you’re a free or paid subscriber, you can also browse through listings in earlier digests in the archive.
If you are part of an organization or art business that offers opportunities or services you think artists should know about, consider a featured listing or post. Email me at kate@young-space.com or just reply to this email for more info.
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