Hello— and happy Wednesday!
I hope you’re enjoying this holiday time, wherever it takes you or who you are celebrating with. For me it has been, as usual, a mix of utter family chaos and much-appreciated slices of downtime.
There are a lot of deadlines coming up for grants and residencies next month, so you’ll find a solid list below that are coming up around mid-month. (So many great awards and well-funded travel opportunities right now!) Paid subscribers, you’ll see a lot more next week, plus I’m putting together an all-in-one opportunities listing page on yngspc.com so that you don’t have to sift through earlier digests trying to find opportunities that remain open. I’ll send more information and access details in next week’s edition.
If you’d like to see every open call opportunity and get a newsletter each week, consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll be supporting my work here and directly supporting even more independent arts writing and publishing on Dovetail, Young Space’s sibling project. Thank you!
I’m also really excited to launch an open submission process for Young Space for the first time in two years. If you’re an artist, submit your work or exhibition for consideration for features in this newsletter, on Instagram, and for other curatorial or editorial projects. Please share! There’s no deadline, it’s free, and I review entries on a rolling basis. Early-career and emerging artists working in any medium, at any age, and from anywhere in the world, are particularly encouraged to share your work.
This week, I’m really excited to share work by Julia Bland, who has a solo exhibition on view right now in Jackson, Wyoming, plus a project by Joshua Hagler recently featured in Dovetail, and some amazing exhibitions taking us into the new year!
And with that—see you next week!
—Kate
What you’ll find below:
Featured artist: Julia Bland
From Dovetail: Joshua Hagler’s Nihil
Five exhibitions on view this week in Barcelona, London, New York, and Los Angeles
Twelve opportunities for artists with deadlines coming up soon
Feature: Julia Bland
Julia Bland’s large-scale geometric works merge painting, sculpture, and woven textiles into stunning tapestry-like wall installations. Often loosely symmetrical, there is an element of the spiritual or sublime, heightened by each piece’s strong color relationships and occasionally totem-like central figures or structures. Her process involves stitching, weaving, knotting, dying, and sometimes even burning her materials, which range from various wool textures to linen, found denim, oil paint, fabric dye, blankets and sheets, and more.
Glenn Adamson, who has written an essay to accompany the artist’s current solo exhibition Embers with Tayloe Piggott Gallery, writes:
The total effect is electrifying. Standing before the immense wall hanging, you are enmeshed in the internal oscillations of its “active surface” (to borrow a term from Op Art). The composition, while essentially symmetrical, is laced with tactical misalignments. Colors are usually reflected from one side to the other, but here and there, they shift unexpectedly. The work has the dynamic balance of a yin yang symbol, as if seen through a kaleidoscope.
Embers continues at Tayloe Piggott Gallery in Jackson, Wyoming, through February 14. See more on the artist’s Instagram.
From Dovetail: Joshua Hagler
“There is a tinge of the pejorative in [the word nothing]… that it would be understood negatively, that one wouldn’t want nothing,” says Joshua Hagler. A few years ago, the New Mexico-based artist was struck by an idea, or more precisely, a word: nihil. He can’t pinpoint a specific moment or impetus but describes experiencing it flash into his mind and linger there, surfacing again and again until he was prompted to research its meaning.
While the Latin term “nihil” is often translated directly to the word “nothing,” it is often used in modern language in the context of “nihilism,” a philosophy or doctrine centering around extreme skepticism or rejection that life ultimately has any meaning.
“Nothing is not nothing,” Hagler says, considering how Nihil came into being as an ongoing series of paintings, explorations around New Mexico, and architectural interventions in abandoned buildings. Instead of meaninglessness or erasure, he considers the concept in relation to a change in presence and life’s inherent possibilities. He continues, “It’s about absence, I think, and speaking about absence by speaking into the absence.”
Keep reading at dovetailmag.com.
Exhibitions
NEW YORK CITY | MY PET RAM
Roberta Gentry + Jack-Arthur Wood: Color Cathedral
Glorious abstract painting by two artists whose subject matter approaches landscape and foliage through a geometric language.
Runs through January 14
LOS ANGELES | JEFFREY DEITCH
Diana Yesenia Alvarado: EARTH WISH
Alvarado’s first solo exhibition in L.A. explores the relationship between figures and vessels.
Runs through January 19
BARCELONA | ALZUETA GALLERY
Max Cobalto: HO MIA KOR’
Spanish artist Max Cobalto is a natural colorist, painting delicate organism-like gradients that appear to float across minimalist canvases.
Runs through January 20
NEW YORK CITY | MICHAEL WERNER
Maki Na Kamura
Gorgeous new paintings and works on paper by Berlin-based artist Maki Na Kamura explore “diverse structures, from the compositions of Old Master paintings to the choreography of K-pop.”
Runs through January 27
LONDON | TURPS GALLERY
Close Corners
A thoughtfully curated show of small works is always a personal favorite, and this group exhibition includes work by Adam Hennessey, Anna Jung Seo, Damien Meade, Heike Kelter, Karolina Albricht, Maj-Gret Gaupås, Mark Jackson, Norman Hyams, Scott McCracken, Sofia Silva, Tim Ralston, Tim Renshaw, Tom Farthing, and Virginia Verran.
Runs through January 28
Artist Opportunities
Deadlines are coming up soon to apply for these grants, fellowships, residencies, and more.
Artlink at Fort Dunree Residencies
Deadline: December 31
The artist residencies are open to professional visual artists working in any discipline including but not limited to: sculpture, photography, painting, installation, and video. Artists in residence must be available for four weeks between March and December 2024. Artists from Ireland will be paid a residency fee of €6,000, and international artists will be paid €7,500 for undertaking the residency.
Submission fee: none
Floorr Magazine Open Call for Issue 32 + Exhibition
Deadline: January 4
Floorr Magazine is currently accepting submissions from emerging to mid-level artists for inclusion in the upcoming issue and/or online exhibition. Works created in all media are accepted.
Submission fee: £15-27
RBA Rome Scholarship
Deadline: January 10
Open to artists who live, work, or study in the U.K. and are 35 years old or younger, the Marianne Von Werther Memorial Award, a.k.a. the RBA Rome Scholarship, offers one artist four weeks’ accommodation in an apartment at Sala Uno in Rome, meals, travel, and a £5,000 award. Two runners-up each receive a £1,000 award.
Submission fee: £10
Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grants
Deadline: January 12
This program provides one-time grants of up to $5,000 for recent unexpected medical, dental, and mental health emergencies to artists in financial need who are creating in the visual arts, film/video/electronic/digital arts, and choreography. Current applications are open for emergencies that occurred on June 1, 2023 and after.
Submission fee: none
Alden Mason Foundation Award
Deadline: January 13
The inaugural Alden Mason Foundation Award will provide $12,000 to a painter of exceptional merit based in Washington state. In addition to the monetary award, the Foundation will also honor two eligible applicants with a Special Recognition Award of $1,000 each.
Submission fee: none
RSA Residencies for Scotland
Deadline: January 14
Open to visual artists at all stages of their careers who were born in Scotland or have been living there for at least three years, the emphasis of the RSA Residencies for Scotland is on enabling a period of research, development, and production, as well as on the acquisition and exchange of new skills and experiences. Artists can apply for funds of up to £5,000 and are responsible for managing their own residency, in discussion with one of 22 partner venues across Scotland.
Submission fee: none
Abbey Awards for the British School at Rome
Deadline: January 14
Open to U.K. and U.S. citizens, Abbey Awards offers residencies for painters at the British School at Rome. Abbey Fellowships are three-month residencies with a stipend of £1,500 per month. The Abbey Scholarship is a nine-month residency, and Scholars receive a stipend of £1,000 per month. Three Fellows and one Scholar are selected annually.
Submission fee: none
European Prize for Applied Arts
Deadline: January 14
This call is open to artists based in Europe and those working in all disciplines relating to the applied arts, which include ceramics, glass, textile, wood, paper, jewelry, furniture, accessories, and “artisan design.” Two prizes will be awarded: €3,500 awarded by the Ministry of Culture of Wallonia-Brussels Federation and €3,500 awarded by World Crafts Council Europe.
Submission fee: none
Women’s Art Register x Seven 2024 Residency
Deadline: January 14
Artists, as well as non-traditional researchers, are encouraged to apply. The resident will receive a stipend of $1,500, as well as guidance from both W.A.R. and Seventh. At the conclusion of the residency the artist is expected to present some kind of public outcome at Seventh, although the organizations are very open as to what this might be. The residency is scheduled for March 6 to May 29, 2024.
Submission fee: none
HAP Exchange Residency
Deadline: January 14
Artists who have their primary residence and center of life in Hessen are eligible to apply for this 3-month residency at HANGAR in Lisbon. Artists receive a monthly scholarship of €1,000, living and working spaces, a travel allowance, a total production and presentation budget of €1,700, and integration into an artistic and curatorial network.
Submission fee: none
Black Rock Senegal 2024-2025 Residencies
Deadline: January 15
Black Rock provides residents with a local staff to assist in navigating Dakar and a language tutor to assist with English, French, and Wolof—the three primary languages of the program. Residents will additionally be offered a modest stipend for incidentals and additional art supplies.
Submission fee: none
Anhar: Culture and Climate Platform Awards
Deadline: January 15
Anhar: Culture and Climate Platform offers a three-tiered open call that invites individual artists, collectives, and cultural organizations based in eligible countries in the MENA region to submit proposals that meaningfully engage with the climate emergency. Grants are available ranging from £1,000 to £50,000 depending on the application tier.
Submission fee: none
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