The Vacant Museum is currently accepting submissions for the following upcoming shows:
Cravings
Although it may not always appear to be the case, unmitigated wish-fulfillment is a curse.
Hummankind has both a collective bottomless pit of desires, hungers, and cravings, and an infinite well of solutions to gratify, satisfy, and swallow us whole. You could say we live in the golden age of consumerism, plagued by the virus of materialism. You could say we are living in a gilded future, where we have evolved past an instinct to prioritize survival, and instead now prioritize self-indulgence. Either way, the void of our desires seems to be growing larger and more powerful. What lies inside this deep and dark cave fueling a viscous cycle of wanting and wasting? What exactly do we want, now?
There are countless ways to respond to this question, we think nothing could capture the answer better than visual representations by artists of this 21st century consumer crisis. The Vacant Museum is calling upon artists around the world to submit artworks which respond to the theme of Cravings, for this upcoming exhibition, which will analyze consumerism, instant-gratification, desire, capitalism, lust, greed, hunger, and more! As this is our annual October exhibition, we invite artists to lean into the darker side of cravings, as those that do are preferred for the upcoming show.
Dark desires will soon be unleashed in Cravings, opening on VacantMuseum.com on 8 October 2021. Artists of all media are welcome to submit with the exception of video works. Submission is free and accepted artists will be invited to list their selected works for sale directly within the show and in the VM Store ( not required ).
click the button below to share your work, as always submission is free
Submission Deadline: Extended! 4 October 2021 4 January 2022
Cravings Opens: Extended! 8 October 2021 7 January 2022
Lost & Found
How can we possibly explain the ability of anything at all in this world to disappear, dissolve or go missing, without leaving a trace? How can we be so sure of anything when such things as coincidences exist and climb into our lives in the most unpredictable and uncanny ways? When things in this world can be lost just as easily as they are found, who is to say there’s any explanation at all for the movement of things outside of our control, and outside of our range of vision?
Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Perhaps this is all that can be said for the reasons behind the constant cycle of losing and finding of material items, places, people, feelings, etc. which we all experience at some point in our lives. But when a borderline paradigm shift occurs in which suddenly every person in the world loses something near and dear at exactly the same time, where can all of it possibly go? Shouldn’t it be safe to assume that everything that’s lost will eventually be found?
At the start of the pandemic, everyone in the world at the very least lost their sense of normalcy, complacency, and routine. And since then, we have collectively found things both positive and negative which have altered the course of history. What did you lose during the pandemic or otherwise? What did you find during the pandemic or otherwise?
The Vacant Museum is calling on artists to submit works which capture things, people, places, etc., either lost or found at some point in time to contribute to a worldwide collective lost and found box which will take the form of an online art exhibition. Together we will sift through this lost and found and conquer that sensation of searching and questioning that comes attached to loss and hides beneath discovery. We will assemble the lost and found items of the world in one place and reconsider whether everything that’s lost can really be found.
The Vacant Museum invites artists around the world to submit completed artworks which capture things either lost or found at some point in time to this international online art exhibition. All media are welcome with the exception of video works.
Artists accepted into this exhibition will be given the opportunity to list their submitted works for sale directly within the show and within the Vacant Museum store – coming 28 July 2021!
Click the button below to submit your work. As always, submission is free!
Submission Deadline: 13 August 2021
Exhibition Opens: 20 August 2021
Submissions Now Closed!
A “SELF-PORTRAIT” SHOWCASE
If you came across the person you think yourself to be in a dream, would you recognize yourself? Or would you be just be another familiar stranger?
On that note, who do you really think you are?
What if the person you perceive yourself to be is really nothing more than an essence of your shadow? How can you know how many lingering selves you may have always following behind you, or façades and faces floating in front of you?
How much can we really understand about ourselves when everywhere we go we are followed by a blank blanket of mystery? How much can we really know about each other in an age where everyone can be anyone?
Why are we so eager to believe in the authenticity of a self-portrait? How often do we really speak the truth about ourselves, and how can we ever represent what we don’t really know? Why do we hardly assume that like anyone else, artists can be blind to themselves too?
The Vacant Museum’s upcoming online exhibition, Familiar Strangers will deconstruct everything we think we know about representing ourselves. We will ask both artists and viewers to question the concept of the self-portrait and to challenge their own understandings of themselves. We will see all reflections and representations of our identities for what they really are: familiar strangers.
By the time we are done collecting submissions, we will assemble a collection of faces from around the world and ask ourselves, “are any of these people really who they say they are?”
In order to be featured in the exhibition, all artists must answer the question, “who do you think you are?” upon submission of their self-portrait. This is both an opportunity to search for truth within yourself, or take advantage of an opportunity to construct an identity completely remote. No one will know the difference. No one will ever know the real you, not even yourself.
The Vacant Museum is calling for self-portraits from artists around the world. We invite artists of all media, with the exception of video, to submit and share their self-portraits and contribute to this international showcase!
Free Entry
Submission Deadline: 13 July 2021
Familiar Strangers Opens: 16 July 2021
Now Closed for Submissions! View the Exhibition 13 July 2021!
WHILE WE WAIT: An Evolving Exhibition
PART THREE:
From roots to branches to flowers, the process of growth is a transformational journey. To finally reach the stage of blossoming or blooming can mean to fully embrace change or to be embraced enough to fully change. A plant of person in full bloom does not shy away from abundance in any aspect. To be in full bloom means to exist and live fully and completely. After a long hard journey of transition and transformation, a full bloom provides us with the fruits of our patience and endurance. While We Wait Part 3 will be based on the theme FULL BLOOM. The Vacant Museum is calling for artworks which interpret this theme or respond to it. We invite artists of all mediums, with the exception of video, to submit and share their artworks which speak to this theme visually, conceptually, or materially and to contribute to this international showcase!
Submission Deadline: May 19th
While We Wait Part Three premieres on the the site: May 21st
SUBMISSIONS NOW CLOSED!
While we wait for the world to reopen, let’s grow. Let’s dig, expand, and reach our way out of this phase of anticipation. Let’s create something to not just keep us busy, but to help propel us into a new world. Instead of crafting cocoons, let’s plant a garden of art and thought to emerge along with us into a wide open world.
While We Wait is the latest call for artwork from the Vacant Museum. For this upcoming exhibition we are pushing ourselves to engage in something completely new and asking our artists to do the same. While We Wait is an evolving exhibition in three parts. Beginning with the theme-word, ROOTED, we will update the exhibition gallery every two weeks and at the same time alter our Call for Submissions to gather new works under a new theme. By May 21st, While We Wait will be a fully formed exhibition with works responding to three different themes which will evolve over time. See the schedule below to see when the gallery will be updated with new works and when we will announce our new theme-words. Subscribe to the site for updates on both and to stay informed on all that’s happening on Vacant.
April 7th:
Call for Submissions Theme-word: ROOTED
April 23rd:
While We Wait Part 1: ROOTED opens
April 21st:
Call for Submission NEW Theme: BRANCHING OUT
May 7th:
While We Wait Part 2 opens
May 5th:
Call for Submissions NEW Theme: FULL BLOOM
May 21st:
While We Wait Part 3: Complete Show Opens
It often seems like the degradation of a built foundation has happened all at once, randomly, and without warning. But a state of disrepair is most often the result of a chain of events come together. As if a tiny team of saboteurs were hiding in plain sight all along, chipping away at bricks and plaster, and harmonizing in their secret meticulous negation. After a crescendo of devastation, a chain of events once more comes together to heal and repair, but this time teamwork is not so melodic.
To be in a state of repair involves confliction. Decisions must be made as to whether repairs will mean a return to once was, or reshape what should never have been. Questions of whether to improve or keep the same, or to preserve damage or cover it completely constitute a state of repair in which the work is not yet done, but only barely begun. A state of repair is also a state of imbalance, tension, and opportunity.
Of course, artists are more than familiar with states of repair. What happens in studios almost always involves collisions of negation and creation in more than merely works in progress. An artist’s way of perceiving form allows them to see the world disassembled and reordered according to their own liking. They ask themselves questions in order to navigate conflicted spaces every day. If anyone can help to alleviate the process of mending a foundation that’s cracked, rotted, and imploded, it is the artists of the world who transition between repair and disrepair in their own worlds and practice each day.
The Vacant Museum’s very first virtual exhibition of the year 2021 will put all things under construction in order to better understand the state of repairs our world seems to be facing. We are seeking submissions of completed works which incorporate elements of repair, restoration, construction, healing, disassembly, and dismantling in all forms. We encourage artists to ask if repair is always positive, if anything can ever really be fully repaired, and what exactly defines a repair.
We invite artists of all mediums, with the exception of video, to submit and share their artworks which speak to this theme visually, conceptually, or materially and to contribute to this international showcase!
Click the Button below to submit, as always submission is free!
Submissions Due: 26 March 2021
Exhibition Opens: 2 April 2021
Closed For Submissions! View the Show HERE!