DEADLINE for submissions: May 2, 2026
Only artists based in the US are eligible for this open call.
Fee to apply: $35* (for up to 3 works) via Zelle
(if submitting the submission fee through PayPal, the fee is $36.21 to cover the transaction fee)
Curated by Christopher Squier, Word Pictures and Poem Objects is an online-only exhibition hosted by Amos Eno Gallery on Artsy.net, running from May 18 to June 27, 2026. This exhibition invites artists and writers to present works that engage with the poetic and the plastic, inhabiting the interdisciplinary space between writing, speech, mark making, and epistolary abstraction.
Artists based anywhere in the U.S. are encouraged to apply to this exhibition through an Open Call.
*Submission fees may be considered charitable donations and be tax-deductible for the submitting artist.
Exhibition Description:
“Regard a mighty tree, and you will discern that it is none other than an upright river pouring into the air of the sky.”
—Paul Valéry, “Poems in the Rough”
Words and images have always had an antagonistic relationship with one another, chipping away at the singular claims to truth of each medium and producing a friction between what is seen and what is described, imagined, or projected. The two paths of signification are also deeply intertwined: images are chastened by their captions, textual encyclopedias are filled with illustrations and visual diagrams, newspapers are peppered with documentary photographs. The exchange between the two often serves to narrow down a description to its precise intent; however, artists and poets have worked against the impulse to simplify and explicate, combining text and imagery in contradictory and expansive elisions of meaning, wresting new ideas from the intersection of visual typography, lyric imaginaries, and the misunderstandings of one system of meaning merging with another.
Throughout the history of arts and letters, the flux of image and language coalesced in various movements, from the visual poetics termed “calligrammes” by the French Surrealist poet Guillaume Apollinaire to the concrete textuality of the Noigandres movement in Brazil and the rhythmic graphics of Soviet artist El Lissitzky’s publication designs. A similar impulse to transgress the boundary of poetry and painting arises in the epistolary abstraction of Cy Twombly’s gestural scrawl or in Hanne Darboven’s diaristic repetitions of simple handwriting loops. stanley brouwn’s iconoclastic works of conceptual art like walking through cosmic rays (1970–2009) consist entirely of a poetic idea described in a caption-like wall text that activates the empty space of the gallery, thus reducing the work of art to something very much akin to a poem.
This exhibition departs from the Surrealist practice of the poème-objet, the dream-based assemblages constructed from scraps of text and found objects by André Breton between 1924 and the 1940s. Poem objects were later picked up by modernist poets and artists of the neo-concrete movement including Ferreira Gullar, Lygia Pape, and Hélio Oiticica who brought poetry into contact with materiality and relational aesthetics. Word Pictures and Poem Objects asks how these modernist poetics might be reimagined today — to plunge into the space of a poem, uncover beauty in the ligatures, serifs, and graphic strokes of typographic design, find revelation in mundane constructions of paper and ink, or encode mysteries within the compositional space of a drawing, a sculpture, or an artist book.
We are seeking submissions for works at the intersection of visual art and poetry. In addition to artists of the visual variety, the exhibition is open to writers who create visual documents like concrete poetry and illustrated texts, as well as other interdisciplinary performers whose practices have a visual dimension (i.e. a score, sketch, diagram, or set of visual instructions). We welcome practitioners who engage the blurred line(s) between mediums.
Platform & Economic Disclosure:
This exhibition will be presented on the Artsy.net profile of Amos Eno Gallery, a nonprofit artist co-op. Artsy requires that all exhibited works be listed for sale, and standard submission and platform commissions apply. The $35 submission fee supports administrative costs, jurying, platform fees, and the operational sustainability of the gallery. If sold, artworks are subject to a 20% gallery commission and a 19% Artsy commission. Artists receive 61% of sales. Submission fees and sales commissions support the operational survival of the gallery.
How to Submit:
To submit to this Open Call, please fill out the application and submit image(s) below. All forms of media will be considered as long as they have a material form (purely digital media with no physical form, for example, do not meet the Artsy requirement that exhibited works be for sale). Artworks will be posted and sold on Artsy.net in a special curated exhibit.
Submissions must be accompanied by a statement (500 words maximum) describing how the submitted work(s) relate to the Word Pictures and Poem Objects exhibition description.
Image Specifications:
-JPG, PDF, PNG, or TIFF format
-High-resolution images are preferred for optimal online presentation
-Maximum file size: 30 MB
-Minimum dimensions: 1,000 pixels (width and height)
-Each artwork must have a minimum of one artwork. Artists are encouraged to provide an additional 1-2 detail images.
-Include full details for each artwork: title, date, media, dimensions, and price
-Each image should be labeled in the following manner:
Last Name_ Artwork Title_Media_Size_Price.
(Please don’t use " or $ characters in your file titles.)
Example: Eno_Language Image_Acrylic on Canvas_12x12_850
Sales process:
In the event of a sale, Amos Eno Gallery will receive a 20% commission and Artsy will receive a 19% commission, with the artist receiving 61% of the sale price. All transactions and sales will be conducted exclusively through Artsy.
Shipping costs will be covered by the purchaser. The artist will receive a prepaid shipping label and will be responsible for packing their artwork for shipping and delivering the artwork to the designated courier for shipping to the collector.
For questions, reach out to: christopher@dissolvesf.org
APPLY BELOW
To apply, please complete this online form with the following information and agree to the commission terms.
Please note: All accepted artwork will be listed on Artsy.net using the information and image as it is provided here.
About the curator:
Christopher Squier is a visual artist, writer, and curator. His art practice explores optics and the role of light in contemporary visual culture, engaging with research around luminescence, transparency, and invisibility to position vision as a historically-altered and politically-contentious experience. He works across media, including drawing, sculpture, site-specific installation, textile, and text-based media.
Squier received his master’s degree from the San Francisco Art Institute and a bachelor’s from Grinnell College. His work has been exhibited at BABEL Visningsrom for Kunst, California College of the Arts, the De Young Museum, the Expatriate Archive Centre, the Hubbell Street Galleries, SOIL Artist Run Gallery, and the ZIBA Prague Glass Experience Museum, among others. For the recurring sculpture festival Play/Ground, Squier presented a monumental tapestry in collaboration with the Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art, Re:Source Art, and Explore & More Children’s Museum. In 2021, he received an Artists Corps Grant from the City of New York. Squier exhibits regularly with Amos Enos Gallery, an alternative, nonprofit platform for professional artists and one of New York City’s longest operating artist-run gallery spaces. He is a founding member of the arts writing collective Dissolve and writes occasional criticism for his newsletter The Placebo Post. During the day, he works as a gallery associate at Hostler Burrows.
About Amos Eno Gallery:
Founded in 1974, Amos Eno Gallery is one of New York City’s longest operating artist-run gallery spaces. The gallery is a nonprofit organization providing a full season of exhibits by emerging and mid-career artists working in visual, performance, installation, interactive, and digital media. Amos Eno serves as an alternative platform for professional artists in a variety of media, giving precedence to artistic expression freed from commercial restraints. By presenting a rich schedule of exhibits and participatory events, we help promote the cultural growth of our community.
About Artsy:
Artsy is an online platform that connects collectors, galleries, and artists, offering access to a vast selection of contemporary and modern art. It features artworks from leading galleries, auction houses, and art fairs worldwide, making it a key destination for discovering, buying, and learning about art.