Young Space, no.81
Voidness and substance.
“I'm very concerned in making something out of nothing. So that my work is as much about voidness as it is about substance.” —Nancy Holt
Lately, I’ve been translating some of my writing into the travel realm as I get closer to putting a downpayment toward a new Transit van that I’ll convert into a most-of-the-time home. A story I pitched to a magazine was accepted recently, about a route I took from Big Bend National Park through Marfa and up to Chaco Canyon a while back, and I have to say, the way this signals the organic tying-together of art and overland travel for me is just… *chef’s kiss.*
I’ve touched on it before, but there are times when I feel like the camping-hiking-build-a-fire side of me is in diametric opposition to the art exhibitions or fairs I visit, even though I feel completely comfortable and at home in both of those situations. Projects like the Guild of Adventure Painters or Land Art Agency & Collective hint at a synergy between the two, but they also feel like radical departures from what we normally think of when we think of the art world.
Growing up in a working class community in the Upper Midwest, the child of hippie-artists with West Coast connections, I’m used to feeling a little bit like the odd fish in the pond. That’s historically been a motivator instead of an inhibitor—I just leaned into art classes as a teenager and decided early on I’d head to art school, ideally as geographically far away from my hometown as geographically possible (in a twist of fate, that’s exactly where I am now).
I think we all, in myriad ways, wonder how we “fit in.” A sense of belonging is fundamental to human experience, and in creative endeavors—especially since the advent of social media—it sometimes feels like we’re all looking over our shoulders all the time to see if we’re “doing it right,” making sure we’re not too “off-base” compared to our peers, or just checking in to remind folks we’re still here.
The beauty of art—I definitely don’t mean the market in this context—and the art-life ethos is that pushing boundaries, redefining long-held norms, doing whatever the fuck you want to do, and expressing what you need to express (the way you want to express it) is the why—the very essence of it. There’s really no right or wrong way to do that; the program is designed to allow you to figure it out as you go.
In a really great recipe book I ordered a few months ago called Good Drinks by Julia Bainbridge (amazing if you’re looking for creative non-alcoholic beverage recipes, by the way), her dedication reads “For Katie, and for anyone trying to do it differently.” Name coincidence aside, I was so impressed by this simple yet empowering statement. It has really fueled me lately, this idea of embracing what’s different, while also serving as a reminder that encouragement and resolve can come from the unlikeliest of places.
See you next week at the usual time—but also keep an eye out for a special Q&A with artist and Paradice Palase co-founder Kat Ryals coming this Sunday.
—Kate
P.S. The quote above is taken from a wonderful 1993 oral history interview with Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz, available in the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art.
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What you’ll find below:
Featured artist: Sonja Strange
Exhibitions to see in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Mexico City, New York City, San Francisco, and Seoul
Twelve opportunities for artists with deadlines coming up soon
Featured artist: Sonja Strange
Through a wide range of sculptures, performances, video works, paintings, text, and sound, Danish artist Sonja Strange explores what she describes as the “historical, geo-, bio-, and mythological layers of the given place—an exploration of our common composite world.” Her pieces are often ethereal, otherworldly, and bodily, presenting enigmatic narratives in surreal settings or objects that appear like artifacts of another world. Recently, she has been interested in the concept of “exosociology,” or the social effects of first contact with extraterrestrials.
See more on Strange’s website and Instagram.
Exhibitions
LONDON | HUXLEY PARLOUR
Lisa Sanditz: Big Boy
Sanditz plays with perception and scale in her works for Big Boy, often setting her compositions in natural landscapes and considering the tensions of our contemporary moment, especially our ever-intensifying impact on the natural environment.
Runs through May 31
NEW YORK CITY | MARGOT SAMEL
Olivia Jia: Mirror stage
Jia’s paintings juxtapose family photographs and mementos with documents and books portraying American and Chinese art historical artifacts in an examination of immigrant experience and connections to pre-20th-century Chinese visual and material culture.
Runs through May 31
CHICAGO | DOCUMENT
Faheem Majeed: All of the Parts
“In his new series of wall sculptures, All of the Parts (2025), Faheem Majeed uses traditional wood-carving techniques to replicate elements of African masks of unknown origin. Using pine, cedar, different wood stains, and shoe polish, each piece in the series isolates and reinterprets a segment of a traditional African mask—not to reconstruct the whole, but to sit with the fragments.”
Runs through June 7
More shows worth a peek:
The Mind’s Eye at Make Room, Los Angeles, through May 23
Alfredo Gallegos Mena: Estar na corda bamba | Error inestable at Saenger Galería, Mexico City, through May 28
Jiyoung Park: Stillness in Light at Gallery Afternoon, Seoul, through June 6
Ruby Brown: Where Water Fills at Daine Singer, Melbourne, through June 7
Martin Machado: Fine Dine the Demons at Eleanor Hardwood Gallery, San Francisco, through June 21
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!
2026 Eliza Moore Fellowship for Artistic Excellence c/o Oak Spring Garden Foundation
Deadline: May 31
The Eliza Moore Fellowship for Artistic Excellence is awarded annually to one outstanding, early-career artist who is developing new works that address plants, gardens, or landscapes in the broad sense. This award is open to visual artists, literary artists, dancers, and musicians. The award includes a $10,000 individual grant and requires a 2 to 5 week stay at Oak Spring.
Submission fee: none
Jonathan and Barbara Silver Foundation 2025 Grant for Sculpture
Deadline: May 31
The Jonathan and Barbara Silver Foundation’s goal with this grant is to encourage and support sculptors as well as writers on sculpture, both emerging and established. The foundation awards $20,000 to a sculptor who demonstrates an exceptional commitment to sculpture and an imaginative engagement with its materials, histories, and situation.
Submission fee: none
Artadia Awards San Francisco Bay Area
Deadline: June 1
The Artadia Awards provide financial support, exposure and recognition to artists. The awards are unrestricted, allowing artists to use the funds in any way they choose. Following the studio visits, the second round jury will designate three awardees to receive unrestricted funds of $15,000, as well as access to the Artadia Network. Awardees are determined based on the sole discretion of the jury.
Submission fee: none
The Farm Margaret River Residency
Deadline: June 2
The Farm Margaret River is a leading residency program in Western Australia offering a unique opportunity for artists to develop work that engages thoughtfully with the land. With a specific focus on site-responsive projects, the residency provides an immersive space for creative inquiry and fostering connections between the artist(s), environment, and community. The five- to eight-week residency is to be undertaken between February and October 2026. Residents receive a $7,500 residency fee; self-contained studio accommodation; opportunities for mentorship and connections with major arts organizations; project support and initial travel expenses to the property; and access to a gallery space, workshop, working farm, and natural bushland, fostering a rich and inspiring creative environment.
Submission fee: none
Gasworks London Residency for Artists under 40 based in Peru
Deadline: June 2
This residency open call is for an early-career artist under the age of 40, based in Peru. The eleven-week, fully funded residency will take place at Gasworks in London from October 6 to December 22, 2025. Residencies are self-led, non-prescriptive, and process-based; they are about enabling artists to research and develop new work, engage with the city, and build their networks.
Submission fee: none
Headlands Center for the Arts Chiaro Award
Deadline: June 2
The Chiaro Award is a fully sponsored artist residency and $15,000 prize for a mid-career painter residing in the United States. The Chiaro Award residency includes a private studio, and inclusion in a dynamic network of Headlands’ creative practitioners and thinkers.
Submission fee: $20
Wassaic Project 2026 Residencies (Summer and Winter)
Deadline: June 2
The Wassaic Project accepts proposals for the 2026 Residency program, which includes the Winter Residency program (January to April 2026) and the Summer Residency program (June to September 2026). This call is for individual artists, collaborative teams, groups of two or more individual artists, and artists applying through the Family Residency program. Artists receive a semi-private studio space(s); private room in a shared house (the Family program receives a private house); access to a wood shop, print shop, and kiln; staff support; and programming such as our visiting artist program, artist talks, studio visits, open studios, artist presentations, etc. The residency fee is $900; fellowships are available.
Submission fee: $25
Fresh 2025 Exhibition for Ceramic Artists
Deadline: June 4
The Fresh exhibition celebrates and promotes emerging talent in contemporary ceramics in the U.K. and Ireland. It explores the diverse ideas and trends in clay and ceramics practice. Shown as part of the 2025 British Ceramics Biennial in Stoke-on-Trent, Fresh provides a unique platform for early-career artists to inspire and challenge as part of the U.K.’s largest contemporary ceramics event.
From the twenty-five selected artists, four Fresh Talent Prizes will be given to extraordinary emerging talent exhibiting in Fresh during the Biennial. The prizes include a range of unique, funded residency opportunities that will take place through partnerships with the University of Staffordshire, Guldagergaard International Ceramics Research Center, and Grymsdyke Farm.
Submission fee: none
Art Fluent Evolution Grant
Deadline: June 6
A $1,000 grant to one visual artist each cycle. The unrestricted funds may be applied toward any expense to enhance the artist’s ability to create work.
Submission fee: $35
Mophradat Open Call - Self Organizations
Deadline: June 10
Self Organizations encourages new and thoughtful ways of working together. For this edition, Mophradat is particularly interested in how a group of arts practitioners organize themselves and work collaboratively. Priority will be given to proposals taking place within the Arab world.
Submission fee: none
Lesher Participatory Arts Grant
Deadline: Rolling until October 2025
A new initiative led by 14 local arts leaders, including the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation and the Lesher Family Foundation, is now accepting applications. This pilot program empowers local artists and organizations in Knox County, Maine, to propose projects and help determine how $25,000 in grant funding will be awarded. One $5,000 grant is awarded each month between June and October 2025, and applications are accepted throughout the run of the program.
Submission fee: none
Gottlieb Emergency Grant Program
Deadline: Rolling
The Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Emergency Grant program is intended to provide interim financial assistance to qualified painters, printmakers, and sculptors whose needs are the result of an unforeseen, catastrophic incident, and who lack the resources to meet that situation. Each grant is given as one-time assistance for a specific emergency, examples of which are fire, flood, or emergency medical need. Amount may be up to $15,000, typically $5,000.
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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