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Are you an artist or collective living and working in London aged 26 or over?
This is your opportunity to exhibit your work at Whitechapel Gallery in The London Open, a triennial exhibition that showcases the vibrancy and diversity of the capital’s art scene.
Applications for The London Open are now closed.
Since 1932 the Whitechapel Gallery’s open submission exhibition has been a launch pad for leading contemporary artists in the early stages of their career including Larry Achiampong, Frank Bowling, Alice Channer, Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Grayson Perry, Heather Phillipson and Rachel Whiteread.
Selected by an esteemed selection panel, artworks submitted for The London Open can be in any medium, including painting, sculpture, moving image, photography, drawing, performances and installations.
Established to showcase the work of East London artists, since 2012 The London Open exhibition has expanded to include artists from all over London, recognising the Gallery’s role in the capital’s cultural landscape and reputation for exhibiting current concerns in contemporary art.
Your application will be reviewed by a selection panel of artworld experts consisting of:
Maria Bukhtoyarova, Collector
Shezad Dawood, Artist
Christine Eyene, Curator and Art Historian
Stephan Tanbin Sastrawidjaja, Gallerist
With Emily Butler, Mahera and Mohammad Abu Ghazaleh Curator and Assistant Curators Wells Fray-Smith and Inês Costa at Whitechapel Gallery.
The list of selected artists will be announced in May 2021.
The London Open will be on display at Whitechapel Gallery in Summer 2022.
We understand that 2020 has been a difficult year for artists. In recognition of this, once you pay your application fee, you will automatically receive a Whitechapel Gallery artist membership for a year. Benefits include: unlimited entries for you and a friend to visit all our free and paying exhibitions, invitations to openings and special events, 50% off and priority bookings for ticketed events for you and a friend, 10% off at the café, bookshop and on limited edition artworks. An artist annual membership usually costs £30.
Please make sure to read our full FAQs document here.
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The exhibition is open to all artists or collectives aged 26 or over on the last day of the call for entries, Sunday 6th December 2020.
Selected artist must live and/or work in the London Boroughs. These are: Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden, City of London, City of Westminster, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, and Wandsworth.
Applications are accepted from artists working in any medium including, for example, painting, sculpture, moving image, photography, drawing, performances or installation.
Work submitted must have been made during or after the year 2018.
Artists working with a pseudonym or collaboratively as part of collectives are eligible to apply, as long as they fulfil the above criteria. If in a collective, at least one member of the group must be aged 26 or over.
Any medium of work made after 2018. Previous editions of The London Open have included a wide range of different mediums, including painting, performance, drawing, digital media and sculpture.
Applications for The London Open open on Friday 16 October 2020 and have been extended to close at midnight on Sunday 6th December 2020. Any applications made after this date cannot be considered.
The submission fee is £30 per application (regardless of how many works you submit in your application), which goes towards our administration costs for the organisation, catalogue, transport, installation and promotion of The London Open. It is not possible to apply without paying this fee, which is non-refundable. You can submit this payment online as part of the application process.
The Whitechapel Gallery is a registered charity 312162 and relies on the philanthropy of donors, members and patrons, charitable trusts and corporate partners for almost half of its annual income. The London Open also benefits from the generosity and support of a range of public and private supporters to realise its ambitions and to make the exhibition free to the public.
We understand that 2020 has been a difficult year for artists. In recognition of this, once you pay your application fee, you will automatically receive a Whitechapel Gallery artist membership for a year. Benefits include: unlimited entries for you and a friend to visit all our free and paying exhibitions, invitations to openings and special events, 50% off and priority bookings for ticketed events for you and a friend, 10% off at the café, bookshop and on limited edition artworks. An artist annual membership usually costs £30.
Learn more about membership to Whitechapel Gallery here.
Required:
Optional:
Please note:
If you are unable to submit online, please get in touch with us: 020 7522 7888 / thelondonopen@whitechapelgallery.org
Please make sure to read our full FAQs document here.
For all enquiries please email thelondonopen@whitechapelgallery.org
