Open Show - Call For Submissions

Open Show 2011 is Surface Gallery’s annual international open submissions exhibition, this year taking place from 12th – 30th July. Heading into its 9th successful year the exhibition aims to investigate diverse contemporary art practice, providing a platform for today’s emerging and established artists.

Submissions are welcome from artists working within any medium and there is the opportunity to submit up to 3 individual artworks to be considered for selection.

Open Show 2011 is selected and curated by the Surface Gallery curatorial team and one winning artist will be selected by a panel of established Nottingham based artists and curators. The prize for the 2011 Open Show winner is a free solo exhibition at Surface Gallery in 2012 in collaboration with Surface Gallery.

Submission Fee:

For each individual artwork submitted there is an entry fee of £8.50
(e.g. 1 artwork submitted = £8.50, 2 = £17.00, 3 = £25.50)
This fee is a non-refundable administration fee.
Submissions should be paid via the PayPal link on the Surface Gallery website.
Please contact Surface Gallery for alternative methods of payment if necessary.

Timetable:

3 June Deadline for Submissions
13 June Selected Artists Informed w/c 13th June
1 July Deadline for receiving Artwork
2 – 11 July Installation Period
12 – 30 July Exhibition
15 July Evening Reception
Open Show 2011 Winner announced
23 July Curatorial Tour and Talk

Contact us here:

surfaceopenshow@gmail.com

Fluorescent Sheep

Fluorescent Sheep

3rd - 14th May

Private View: 5th May 6-8pm
...Open Tues-Fri 12-6
Sat 11-5


Prone to fads and following the crowd, paradoxically often trying to break from the crowd in a quest for uniqueness, we stumble over clichés and lose authenticity.


Isolated and solitary, at the same time one of a mass of many, this exhibition speaks of the duality of developing contextual dialogues through cultural collaboration, recognising and investigating work that has gone before, whilst at the same time striving for independent creative expression and autonomy.


Surface Gallery is an arts organisation entirely run by volunteers and this year's annual in house exhibition provides a platform for the practice of its volunteers, seeking to explore the dichotomy that a crowd is a reduction of the sum of its parts and by working in a group you can lose your own identity.


In times of ever increasing government cutbacks to arts budgets and the oversaturation of art school graduates, how do young contemporary artists find a voice in the crowd and how can one group stand out from another?

Surface Shorts – Call for Submissions

Surface Gallery are now seeking artists, filmmakers and creativities to submit short videos for an exhibition of moving image taking place in late April. Surface’s large gallery floor will be transformed into a screening space for a two-week exhibition exploring emerging talents in contemporary film, video art and animation.

The theme of the exhibition is open as we prepare to curate a diverse screening programme that explores the spectrum of the moving image medium. The only specification for submission is that films are no longer than 30minutes in length and are suitable to be shown on a large screen projection.

There is no fee to submit entries, however if your artwork is selected Surface Gallery will charge a £20 fee (10% discount for students) to take part in the exhibition. Selected pieces will be given dedicated slots within the daily screening programme.

Deadline for submissions is Monday 4^th April 6pm

For further information and to download an application form please visit our website: www.surfacegallery.org

Or contact us here:

surfacegallery@googlemail.com

0115 947 0793

Surface Summer Artist Residency 2011: “Site & Situ”

We are delighted to announce that applications are now open for the first Solo Summer Artist Residency in the Surface Project Space.

This summer residency is an opportunity for an early–mid career Artist to make new work in situ and in response to the Surface Project Space over a period of 3 months. The selected artist will be working in Surface’s 4-storey building, based in Nottingham and which comprises of a volunteer office, the contemporary art gallery: Surface Gallery, the artist studio group: Surface Dwellers and the Project Space dedicated entirely to the artist-in-residence.

This residency is open to any practicing artist who is actively interested in developing new work in a new site. Applications are welcome from national and international artists. We would like the artist to be working in the residency space as often as possible, however we are unfortunately not able to offer or fund accommodation or travel for the artist.

For all enquiries please contact surfacegallery@gmail.com and include ‘Residency Enquiry’ in the subject title.

Residency Dates:

21st May – 21st August 2011

Further Details:

Application Deadline: 4.00pm Sunday 17th April
Shortlisted Applicants notified: Saturday 23rd April
Shortlisted Applicants Interviewed: Friday 6th May
Successful Applicant Informed: Saturday 7th May
Residency Begins: Saturday 21st May

1%ers - Banality & Big Questions

February 18th to March 3rd 2011

Alan Binns made good use of the Surface space in curating the most recent show Banality & Big Questions. This show brought together diverse styles of artworks that placed together began to create a bizarre domestic setting. A horned chair, a lightswitch in a cigarrette tin and half a man watching some unusual youtube footage were some of the highlights of this exhibition.

4 CAN + 2 =

February 8th to February 12th 2011

A show of collaborating forces, 4 CAN + 2 brings together the individual practises of four artists of the ‘CAN’ Studio Group – founder Marek Tobolewski and artists Billie Ireland, Pauline Woolley and IngeTong - as well as those of two independent artists, Louis Closs and Martin Lewis.

The International Postcard Show 2011

January 18th to January 29th 2011

The annual postcard show featured hundreds of original artworks by a diverse selection of artists. Unrestricted by medium each piece is unique to the artistic sensibility of its creator, but at the same time connected to the group by its 6 x 4” postcard size limitation. Surface gallery was also featured on the BBC website, take a look!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/nottingham/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_9365000/9365651.stm