Young Space, no.88
Annual honesty.
For the first time ever, I’m skipping an issue next week. As galleries transition into summertime group show mode—and I have a big ol’ once-in-at-least-a-decade graduation-party-meets-family-reunion situation out of town (it sounds like how I feel) over the weekend—I’m going to take a brief break, and the digest will be back in your inboxes on Wednesday, July 23. See you then.
"I have always wanted to tell my story—or, more to the point, my side of the story."
—Faith Ringgold
During my usual scroll last weekend, I ran across a heartbreaking post about Montauk Artists Association’s annual art fair getting rammed through by a heavily intoxicated driver. Several artists’ booths were completely lost. (There’s a GoFundMe!)
Seeing the crumpled tents brought me back to some harrowing experiences my dad experienced when he would travel around the country to do very similar art fairs back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As a teenager, I’d travel all over with him in the summertime to help out — Ann Arbor, Chicago (my favorite) and various suburbs, Tulsa, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and plenty more I probably can’t even remember. He used the same kind of square, pop-up white tent and had handmade some lovely pickled Lauan plywood panels to hang his seascape watercolors on. For a while, they sold like hotcakes.
I remember sitting on a director’s chair in his booth at Madison’s Art Fair on the Square and having to managing a queue of people buying lithographs, armed with my analog credit card swiper and paper receipts. Thus, the entrepreneurship seed was planted! And also a love for travel. But I digress.
Art fairs like these seemed to have a heyday back in the 1980s and 1990s, and while many are still going strong like Ann Arbor Art Fair or Old Town Art Fair in Chicago, gallery-led art fairs have kind of eclipsed some of the fine art that one used to be able to find at these. But that’s not to say they aren’t still worthwhile, especially for wearable art, high-end crafts, photography, pottery, and some 2D work. My dad would hustle all winter and then spend the entire summer season bopping from one fair to the next, whittling down the inventory (ideally!) until he could start building it up again in the autumn. So many others would and still do the same.
These kinds of art fairs were where I first comprehended what “artist communities” are—how dispersed and yet how joyful and encouraging they could be. My absolute favorite thing was check-in time, when there’d be donuts or some other kind of treat (I was like, 15, so this really mattered) and everyone would be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for the weekend. I loved setup time, when everyone put up their tents and arranged their booths with such care. I took a scooter with me to a couple of fairs, and I’d toot around and see which artists I recognized from other places—several I’d see all the time.
I don’t know how many times my dad set up and took down his booth, but every summer he attended several fairs, and they weren’t without their challenges. The weather is obviously always a factor. High winds took out a few of his paintings once, and nearly did a few more times besides that. And leaving the booths full overnight always felt like an exercise in false security, even if the fair was ostensibly guarded.
When I saw the news about the Montauk fair and how several of the artists had lost everything, it really brought me back to those days of outdoor festivals and the vulnerability artists accept when they bring everything they have on the road, or at least outside the studio or gallery walls and into the open air. Not only did they lose their artwork, but they lost their displays, which can amount to thousands of dollars. While we often attend local art festivals for the food trucks or the music as much as the art, I think any opportunity to remember that many of the booths represent a person or family’s livelihood is always worth a mention. Preaching to the choir, I know. ;)
See you next week.
—Kate
Young Space Digest is entirely free, but if you like what it’s about, support my work with a paid subscription.
Just $6/month — or $5/month annually — gives you access all opportunities 24/7. To those who are already supporting the digest, my heartfelt thanks—it means a lot.
What you’ll find below:
Emerging: Flora Deborah
Exhibitions to see in London, Los Angeles, Millerton, and New York City
Eleven opportunities for artists with deadlines coming up soon
Emerging: Flora Deborah
I was initially drawn to Flora Deborah’s works via her ceramics, which are lovely, esoteric sculptures with intermingling figures and enigmatic narratives bordering on the metaphysical. Her paintings, then, elaborate on this otherworldliness in dreamy, blurred compositions in which bizarre, genderless figures and animals inhabit landscapes that merge with the cosmos.
“I’m interested in art as a kind of alchemy—a space where emotional, spiritual, and physical realities shift form,” Deborah says. “Through drawing, painting, and recently printmaking, I investigate themes such as protection, transformation, ancestral rituals, and the unseen forces that shape us. I often begin from a dream or an inner vision and allow the work to evolve instinctively, guided by pareidolia and material logic.”
See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
Exhibitions
LONDON | MODERN ART - HELMET ROW
Francesca Mollett: Annual Honesty
In Francesca Mollett’s paintings, “feelings of disintegration and constellation are processed through surrogate image-stories about things coming apart then together, as part of something new.”
Runs through July 19
LOS ANGELES | ROBERTS PROJECTS
Back to the Earth
A fabulous group show featuring the work of Luke Agada, Jackie Amézquita, Miguel Arzabe, Saif Azzuz, Jackie Castillo, Lenz Geerk, Aaron Glasson, Koyoltzintli, Dionne Lee, Suchitra Mattai, Evan Nesbit, Wendy Red Star, and Noah Schneiderman.
Runs through August 9
MILLERTON, NY | GEARY CONTEMPORARY
Dana Sherwood: Garden of the Sphinx
Sherwood’s new body of work, made over the past two years, “investigates the mystery, riddle and the alchemy of the Sphinx as a symbol in archaeology and as a metaphor for the creative process.”
Runs through August 10
More shows worth a peek:
Under the Lazy Sun at la BEAST, Los Angeles, through August 2
Daniela García Hamilton: Amanecer / Atardecer at Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, through August 2
Mad Heart, Be Brave at Fridman Gallery, New York City, through August 8
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!
Walker Youngbird Emerging Native Art Grant
Deadline: July 10
The Emerging Native Artist Grant is designed to support early-career Native and Indigenous artists in completing a proposed project—one that results in work that can be shared publicly, whether through exhibition, installation, publication, or other visual presentation. The grant is $15,000, and the foundation welcomes applications from artists who are exploring the intersection of tradition and innovation, and whose work reflects a commitment to cultural integrity, creative experimentation, and contemporary relevance.
Submission fee: none
Gasworks Residency Open Call for Artists based in Paris, Île-de-France
Deadline: July 14
This residency open call is for an artist based in Paris, Île-de-France, who has presented their work in several venues to date. The eleven-week, fully funded residency will take place at Gasworks in London from January 7 to March 25, 2026.
Submission fee: none
Women's Studio Workshop Artist Book Residency Grant
Deadline: July 15
The Artist’s Book Grant is an eight- to ten-week residency for artists to produce a limited-edition book work. The grant includes a stipend of $350 per week, up to $1,000 for materials, up to $250 for travel within the continental U.S., free onsite housing, and 24/7 studio access.
Submission fee: none
Marble House Project 2026 Residencies
Deadline: July 15
Marble House Project is open to artists living in the United States and abroad. You must be at least 21 years old. Each session accommodates approximately eight artists. All residents live together in the historic, eight-bedroom Manley-Lefevre house, a communal space organized around responsibilities-sharing systems which highlight sustainability and community. Applications are accepted in all creative fields, and there is no fee for the residency.
Submission fee: $35
First Peoples Fund 2026 Cultural Capital Fellowship
Deadline: July 16
This fellowship offers $10,000 grants to artists and culture bearers dedicated to community outreach and cultural preservation through the arts. All applicants must be active within and connected to their Native or Tribal community.
Submission fee: none
The Power Institute Residency at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris
Deadline: July 25
Each year, the Power Institute offers four Fellowships to Australian artists, scholars and other art workers to spend three months at our studio at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Since 1967, more than 140 residencies have been awarded. The Fellowship covers the rental fee for the studio for 3 months. Residency winners will also receive AUD$6,000 towards travel and living expenses.
Submission fee: none
Locust Projects Open Call
Deadline: July 28
This open call is for proposals for new, installation-based work of any medium that has never been presented and is specifically designed for the Project Room. Artists receive a $5,000 materials budget, $3,100 artist fee, and lodging and travel.
Submission fee: none
Contemporary Craft Regional Residencies (Pennsylvania)
Deadline: Rolling — next review date is August 1
The Regional Artist-in-Residence program at Contemporary Craft allows artists living within 100 miles of Pittsburgh free access to fully equipped studios, CC staff support, and the opportunity to interface with the public while creating a body of work. The regional residencies are three months long. Benefits include access to community studio space and equipment, private storage, a $100/month materials stipend, the opportunity to enter into a relationship with CC’s retail store to sell work, free tuition for one studio workshop, and the opportunity to be a paid studio instructor.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and will be reviewed approximately 2 months prior to the start of each session. Current review dates are February 6, May 1, August 1, and November 7.
Submission fee: none
Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Project Grants for Maine Artists
Deadline: August 1
The Ellis-Beauregard Foundation announces project grants for Maine artists working in all genres, offering five $10,000 grants for projects completed within the grant year 2026.
Submission fee: none
Bemis Center 2026 Artist-in-Residence Program (Autumn)
Deadline: August 4
The Bemis residency is a process-based experience–residents have the ability to research, experiment, and explore free from expectations. Bemis residents enjoy generous sized, private live/work studios and have 24-hour access to extensive installation and production spaces; the Okada Sculpture & Ceramics Facility, a 9,000 square foot industrial workshop used for large-scale sculpture fabrication; and a Sound Studio for rehearsing and recording. Selected U.S.-based artists-in-residence receive a $1,250 monthly stipend and an additional $750 travel stipend.
Submission fee: $40
QEST Emerging Maker Grants
Deadline: August 13
QEST offers three grants to support makers and conservators at various career stages, strengthening the pipeline of talented craft professionals in the U.K. The organization supports contemporary and traditional craft, as well as the exploration of innovative techniques.
Scholarships are for mid-career to established craftspeople, offering grants between £3,000 and £18,000, plus a place on the Cockpit PDP. These grants support talented individuals to sustain vital skills through targeted training. Applicants should have a high level of skill, a strong body of work and be aiming to elevate their craft further.
Emerging Maker Grants are for early-stage craftspeople, aiming to develop the next generation of craftspeople, typically those practicing for 4 years or less. The grant provides between £3,000 and £10,000 for essential skills training. Applicants should demonstrate strong potential, a growing body of work and a commitment to progressing their craft.
Submission fee: $40
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.
Visit on the Young Space Instagram.