2026 Irving Open Submission Pass

Irving Open Call

We are delighted to release Submission Passes for sale for the 2026 Irving Open Call. Purchase of a Submission Pass is the first step to submitting your work for the Irving Open Call; all artists who have purchased a Submission Pass will then be invited to submit their work in October.

Works selected from the Open Call submissions will be exhibited at Irving Gallery’s Oxford gallery spaces in the 2026 Irving Open Exhibition between 31st January and 28th February 2026.

One artist selected for the 2026 Irving Open Exhibition will be awarded a solo show at Irving Gallery in 2027.

Please read the following Terms & Conditions carefully before buying your Submission Pass.

TERMS & CONDITIONS

Submissions

Purchase of one Submission Pass for a fee of £25 will entitle you to submit up to five individual works (or fewer).

You may purchase more than one Submission Pass if you would like to.

The fee for the Submission Pass is non-refundable.

Irving Gallery is run by one person, the gallery’s curator Vanessa Lacey, who manages all aspects of the gallery single-handedly. The submission pass fee is due to the substantial amount of admin and time involved with running an open call of this scale, as well as the time and expense involved in curating, marketing, and hosting the exhibition. The fee supports the Irving Open exhibition to ensure it is sustainable, and enables the gallery to host future exhibitions within its spaces.

The 2026 Irving Open Call is open to all artists regardless of their location, so long as they are able to ensure that their work will be delivered and collected in accordance with the dates and guidelines below.

All mediums of visual art will be considered, providing the artworks submitted are one-off, unique pieces. This year there are no size restrictions, though artists are encouraged to consider the domestic scale of the gallery which inhabits two rooms of a Victorian terraced house. So if you plan to submit one or more large works, you would be advised to submit one or more smaller works as well (e.g. up to 45 cm in any direction), since space is limited and the majority of selected works are likely to be smaller (as above, up to 45 cm in any direction), rather than larger.

Everyone who has purchased a Submission Pass will be emailed and invited to submit their artwork within the submission window (1st to 31st October 2025). Further guidelines on how to submit your work will be provided at that time.

Submissions will be reviewed by Irving Gallery’s Curator Vanessa Lacey within the month of November, and all artists will be notified by 1st December whether or not their work has been selected.

The Curator’s decision on selection is final, and we will not be able to provide individual feedback to artists whose works which are not selected.

Important Dates

Purchase your Artist Submission Pass: by 11.59pm on Tuesday 30th September.

Artwork Submissions: submit your artwork(s) between 1st October and the deadline of Friday 31st October 2025 (11.59pm, BST). You will be invited by email to submit your works; submission will be via a form on our website.

All artists will be notified whether or not their work has been selected for exhibition by 1st December 2025.

Delivery of selected artworks: Wednesday 14th, Thursday 15th or Friday 16th January 2026.

Exhibition dates: Saturday 31st January to Saturday 28th February 2026.

Opening party: Saturday 31st January, 3pm-5pm.

Collection of unsold artworks: Wednesday 4th or Thursday 5th March 2026

One artist selected for the 2026 Irving Open Exhibition will be awarded a solo exhibition at Irving Gallery in 2027. The dates and duration of the exhibition will be decided by Irving Gallery.

Key Information

Artists are responsible for delivering their work to the gallery (28 Essex Street, Oxford OX4 3AW), and for collecting it at the end of the exhibition. We do not have storage space here to store your work, and with a fast turnaround of exhibitions, you must either collect yourself or arrange collection of your work on the dates provided. If you wish to arrange for a third party to collect your work, you must make those arrangements and book the collection for Wednesday 4th or Thursday 5th March. Wherever possible, we will keep and re-use your packaging, so you can assume the same dimensions and weight for booking collection.

All works selected for the 2026 Irving Open Exhibition must be for sale. All selected artworks will be consigned exclusively to Irving Gallery from the point we confirm selection until 31st March 2026. Please do not submit works which are under consideration elsewhere.

Substitutions are not guaranteed. Please be aware that if a selected work sells before delivery to the gallery for exhibition or becomes otherwise unavailable, or it turns out to be too expensive to ship to Oxford for exhibition, there is no guarantee that another work can be substituted.

Irving Gallery will retain a 45% commission on all sales.                                                                                            

Thank you for purchasing a Submission Pass for the 2026 Irving Open Exhibition, and your interest in exhibiting with Irving Gallery. Your participation in the Open Call and your support of Irving Gallery’s exhibition programme are hugely appreciated.

If you have any questions, please get in touch by email: vanessa@irvinggallery.com.