The Whitechapel Gallery in East London has recently announced details for its London Open 2015 exhibition, which will feature the work of London artists that enter the open submission process. Similar to the Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Exhibition, anyone with even the vaguest artistic intentions can put forward their work as potential entrants, but here the focus is on Londoners in isolation, so whether you’re a cockney barrow bow with a crayon or a Hoxton pony with a flair for wood carvings you could be included in next year’s display.
Entrance to the open submission process is coming to a close on the 12th December 2014, so if you are interested in getting in on the action, you should probably pull your finger out and get your submission in fast (apply here). For everyone else, you’ll be able to visit the exhibition at the Gallery from the 15th July 2015 to see the work of the successful entrants in all their artistic glory.
We’re big fans of open submission exhibitions, as they provide a brilliant opportunity for artists from all walks of life and all stages of their artistic career to put forward their work as potential candidates for a prestigious gallery exhibition. Though they can get a lot of stick from the snootier portions of the art critic community, for us they’re no less credible than any other art installation and they act as great barrier busters for improved interaction between the public, contemporary art and artists.
Every piece of work submitted during the process is reviewed by the curators at the Whitechapel Gallery, who will select a shortlist of entries to make it through to the external judging panel to pick out their favourite artists, who will then make it into the exhibition in 2015. This year’s panel is made up of Spanish artist and Turner Prize nominee, Angela de la Cruz, Contemporary Art Critic at London Evening Standard, Ben Luke, and founder of The Approach Gallery in Bethnel Green, Jake Miller.
If you are looking to enter this year’s open submission process to be featured in the 2015 London Open exhibition, rather bizarrely, you need to be aged 26 years and over, which we don’t really get if we’re honest. It’s probably related to a desire to exclude student submissions, but could be missing out on some gems in the process. You’ll also need to be living or working in one of the London Boroughs, submit only recent work that was created within the last three years and front up the £25 admin fee, which allows you to put forward up to 5 items for inclusion.
Again, like the Summer Exhibition, Whitechapel Gallery’s London Open has got a long tradition and dates back to 1932, when it was open exclusively to artists working east of the Aldgate Pump. From 2012 onwards, the submission restrictions were relaxed to include anyone living or working in the London Boroughs, broadening the scale of potential entrants significantly. Previous years have seen Anish Kapoor, Julian Opie, Cornelia Parker, Grayson Perry and Antony Gormley adding their creative output to the exhibition, so it will be interesting to see who makes it through to the 2015 display. Photo credit: Maryam Eisler.
