Artist Opportunities

Description
“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Terre des Hommes (published in English as Wind, Sand and Stars)

With the constant onslaught of news media around us, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and disconnected from the world around us. As a respite from these intense narratives, exploring minimalism through art offers a refreshing Palette Cleanser, inviting us to reflect on simplicity in a chaotic world.

Simplicity reveals a profound beauty, as it strips away extraneous details to reveal clarity in your artistic thought, design and execution. Maybe your best work is known for its clean lines or its geometric shapes. Do you use a limited or monotoned color palette? Does negative space play a big role in your art? Is your quilt stitching stripped down to the essential shapes needed to highlight and emphasize your design? Perhaps you’re pushing the craft forward by making modern interpretations of traditional quilt blocks or by creating three-dimensional sculptures from quilts that result in spare and elegant forms.

However you use minimalism in your art quilts, we want to see your submissions for the 30th Annual Art Quilt exhibition. Practicing the art of reduction requires a deep understanding of your subject, excellent technical mastery and the ability to identify the most crucial elements of the quilting craft to create dynamic emotional effects and leave a lasting impression in your viewers. Palette Cleanser celebrates the beauty of minimalism and encourages simplicity, clarity, and timelessness to create powerful, thought-provoking pieces.

About the Juror
Susan Allred manipulates textiles and other fibers to explore the ways they affect and reflect our daily lives. Her work expresses her thoughts and feelings about society’s expectations for women, their bodies and their work. Her artistic process, which is lengthy and repetitive, becomes a meditation on “women’s work” — the painstaking labor, both mental and physical — that has historically been dismissed as merely decorative or utilitarian instead of as the product of a fertile, creative minds. By transforming quilts into non-functional sculptural works that invite viewers to think about concepts that may be controversial, Allred questions the notion that crafts cannot be used to create fine art while also commenting on the invisibility of women’s labor.

Allred’s work has appeared in numerous solo and group exhibitions, most recently in a two-person show at the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum. She was an artist member at Eye Lounge contemporary art space and served as co-president for two years. Allred lives and works in Tempe, Arizona.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
For a $20 fee, artists may submit up to 3 works for consideration. Please follow these instructions:

1.  Complete artist submission form
   a. Please complete the online submission form with all of the information relevant to your submission including contact and title card information. You will need the following: title, medium, year created, and sales price for all three artworks, images, and an artist statement with any information you think will be relevant to the juror. When pricing your work, please keep in mind the gallery’s 50% sales commission.
2. Access the form here: https://forms.gle/t2jfaRQhv7k1hZzh6
3. Payment: the $20 submission fee can be paid either online or by calling 480-782-2695. Submissions are considered incomplete until the submission fee has been paid.
   a. Pay online here: https://square.link/u/nER0usGO

QUILT DISPLAY
For ease of installation, please ensure your quilts have sleeves appropriate to their sizes. These sleeves should be large enough for 2-inch slats. If your piece has a hanging system other than a sleeve, please contact us prior to entering to ensure it will be compatible with the gallery’s hanging requirements. It is a great help to our installation staff if you include slats with your artwork that fit properly in relation to the length of your sleeves.
• Slats should NOT have a wire attached to them.
• Slats SHOULD have holes at both ends large enough for a nail to fit through. 

Please label slats and any packing material with artist name and artwork title.

EXHIBITION TIMELINE

Entries due: Monday, September 12, 2025 at midnight
Notification to artists: Late September
Work drop-off in person: October 27-30
Work shipped to gallery must arrive no later than Thursday, October 30th
Opening reception: Saturday, November 8, 4-6 pm
Show closes: Saturday, January 24, 2026
Work pick-up: Monday, January 26, 2026

ELIGIBILITY
All quilt artists are invited to enter. Collaborative work by two or more artists is also permitted. The works must not have been previously displayed at the Chandler Center for the Arts or Vision Gallery. Works should have been completed within the last three years. Both two and three-dimensional textile combinations will be accepted.

JURY FEE
There is a fee of $20 to enter up to 3 works. This fee is non-refundable.

SHIPPING/DELIVERY
All delivery and shipping costs are the responsibility of the artist. To ensure your shipping and insurance needs are met when we ship your artwork(s) back to you, we ask you to include a completed return label when you send work for installation. This helps us efficiently process shipping at the end of the show.  Art must be received by Thursday, October 30, 2025.

INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING
Rules listed are for U.S. artists. While shipping costs remain the responsibility of the artist, accepted international entries are handled on an individual basis to assure an efficient and cost-effective delivery.

INSURANCE
Works are insured while on display at Vision Gallery for 50% of the retail price for the duration of the exhibition. All paperwork must designate whether an artwork is available for sale or is listed as NFS (not for sale), along with the insurance value.

SALES COMMISSION 
All artworks offered for sale are listed with a 50% commission, unless specified by the artist as not for sale. Commissions are paid in the month following the sale.

GALLERY HOURS
Vision Gallery is open 10AM – 5 PM Monday – Friday and 10 AM – 4 PM on Saturdays. Call 480-782-2695 for holiday hours.

CLOSE OF EXHIBIT

Artworks from local artists may be picked up on Monday, January 26. Non-local works will be shipped beginning the week following the close of the exhibition; see Shipping/Delivery for details. Accepted artists will be notified with more detailed instructions prior to the close of the exhibition.

QUESTIONS?
Contact staff at [email protected] or call us at 480-782-2695.

Installation view of the exhibition Concerned, but Powerless, by artist Safwat Saleem

Are you interested in showing your work at Vision Gallery or the Chandler Center for the Arts? We always accept exhibition proposals for both spaces and jury them on a rolling basis during the months of January and June. Please click the button below to access our submission form.

Interested artists are encouraged to contact gallery staff prior to submission with any questions they may have. Gallery staff can be reached at [email protected] and 480-782-2695.

• Incomplete and improperly formatted applications may not receive a response
• Small group exhibitions including 2-4 artists in different media organized around a common theme are more likely to be accepted than solo exhibitions. This benefits both the gallery and the artists as it attracts a wider variety of viewers, but still allows the artists to display a cohesive body of work, as opposed to individual objects.
• Solo artists may still apply, but will be considered for both group and solo exhibitions.
• The quality of your images matters. Make sure your photographs are in focus, well lit, and with a plain background. It is possible to take good photographs with your phone, but if you have a better option – use it! Here is a good tutorial for taking quality pictures of your artwork with a smartphone.
• We do not have a budget for shipping artwork. If you live outside of Arizona, it may be quite costly to get your artwork to and from the gallery.
• Take a look at our past exhibitions to get a feel for the kinds of shows we host.
• If your primary goal is selling artwork, we might not be the right gallery for you. Although we are thrilled when artwork sells, our focus is on hosting engaging, thought-provoking exhibitions for our community to enjoy and not commercial sales.