Irving Open 2025
About the Irving Open
This Open Call is now closed for entries. Please follow Irving Gallery on Instagram and sign up for our emails for announcements of future Open Call opportunities.
Irving Gallery is delighted to announce an Open Call for Submissions for a Group Exhibition in Spring 2025. This Open Call is open to all artists based in the UK and Ireland, who would like to submit artwork for consideration for our forthcoming group show, the Irving Open 2025 (1st March 2025 – 5th April 2025).
The intention of the exhibition is to provide a platform to showcase and to celebrate some of the most exciting recent work by artists working today. The exhibition is not themed, as we did not want to exclude any artists from entering because they feel their work does not fit within a given theme. The physical show in the gallery will have an accompanying online presentation in which artworks will be accompanied by a short voice recording by the artist talking about their selected work.
Painting, drawing, collage, print, textile, sculpture, and ceramic – all these media will be considered providing that the submitted works are one-off, original works (not editions).
We are very pleased that artists Henry Ward and Kate Shooter will selecting the work alongside Irving Gallery’s Curator Vanessa Lacey. All works will be viewed by all three judges.
Please read the following information carefully before purchasing your Artist Submission Pass and submitting your work.
Key Dates
Friday 11th October: Submissions open! A limited number of online submission passes will go on sale from this date.
Thursday 14th November (midnight): Deadline for submissions
By 20th December: All artists to be informed of selection decision
12th – 14th February 2025: Delivery of work to the gallery
1st March – 5th April 2024: Exhibition dates
Saturday 1st March 2025: PV and prize announcement 3pm to 6pm (announcement at 4pm)
23rd – 25th April: Collection of unsold work
Artist Submission Pass
In order to submit work to the exhibition, you must first purchase an Artist Submission Pass. A limited number of passes will be made available and they are non-refundable. Purchase of a Submission Pass allows you to submit up to three works.
Artist Submission Passes cost £15 | £20 | £25. Please select your Submission Pass based on what you can afford to pay. All submissions will of course be considered equally regardless of which pass you have bought.
Sales of submission passes will help cover the exhibition costs and will support the gallery’s programme in 2025. Irving Gallery is an independent gallery run singlehandedly by its Curator Vanessa Lacey and it is entirely without external funding or other financial support. The gallery depends on its activities and sales to keep the doors open and to continue to host a programme of exciting exhibitions.
On purchase of an Artist Submission Pass, you can then submit your work quoting the Order Number as your reference (you will receive this Order number on your confirmation email following your purchase of your Submission Pass, e.g. #405).
Head to the bottom of this page to purchase your Artist Submission Pass.
Dimensions and Medium
Artists can submit up to three works.
Wall hung work can be paintings, prints, drawings, collage, wall-based ceramics, wall-based sculpture, or textiles, so long as they are one-off, original works (not editions).
Submitted works must be up to and under 44 cm in any direction, including any frame.
We will also be accepting submissions for smaller scale works of sculpture in any medium: works which either fit comfortably on a plinth with a surface area of 30 x 30 cm, or which will sit on the shelves within the gallery. As a guide, most sculpture selected will have a maximum dimension of approximately 35 cm. We have limited space for floor-based sculpture on this occasion, so if you submit a floor-based work, we recommend you also submit two other works which fit the guidelines above.
Due our commitment to include as many artists in the exhibition as possible, a maximum of one work per artist will be selected.
If your work is selected for the exhibition, I will ask you to send me a voice recording of you talking about the selected artwork. More information to follow once the artist selection has been made.
Image Requirements
Images of artworks should be taken in good, natural light against a pale / light background and should show all edges of the work. These images will also be used to present your artwork on our website, if selected, so please ensure the images are high quality and that the image shows the artwork square on (for wall-based art). You may submit more than one image of each artwork, e.g. details, or different angles - just make sure you label the image files clearly (e.g. image 1, image 2, at the end of the suggested file name below).
Image files should be labelled in the following format:
Artist name_Title_Year_Medium_Dimensions(cm)(h x w)_£ Price
Image files should be in .jpg or .png format (no HEIC files please), and between 1MB and 5MB in size.
How to Submit
Please send an email to vanessa@irvinggallery.com as follows:
(1) Please include your five-digit order number (from the email you received on purchase of your Submission Pass, e.g. #00405), your name, and the words Artist Submission in the subject line of your submission email (For example: 279, Vanessa Lacey, Artist Submission)
(2) Please send images of your artworks as .jpg or .png files as attachments to your submission email. Minimum file size 1MB; maximum 5MB.
(3) Please include a pdf attachment with thumbnail images of your works plus all the details of the artworks as follows:
Artist, ‘Title’
Date
Medium
Dimensions in cm
Price in £ (retail price)
Please also include in the pdf (i) an artist statement (ca. 250 words) which is relevant to the work you have submitted; and (ii) a short artist biography (ca. 250 words); your Instagram handle; and your website (if you have one).
Please label your pdf with your name as the file name.
Solo Exhibition Prize
One artist will be selected by the judges to have a solo show at Irving Gallery in 2026, curated by Vanessa Lacey, with a mentorship programme over the intervening period designed in conjunction with the artist.
The prize announcement will be made at the Private View on Saturday 1st March from 3pm to 6pm (announcement at 4pm).
Judging
All submissions will be considered by Irving Gallery’s Curator Vanessa Lacey and artists Henry Ward and Kate Shooter.
Artists will be informed of the judges’ decision by 20th December. Given the number of submissions anticipated, we will not be able to give individual feedback to the artists whose work is not selected, but we will communicate with all artists to let you know if your work has been selected or not.
Delivery of Work
Delivery of work to the gallery is entirely the artist’s responsibility. All work must be delivered ready to hang and suitably presented or framed from 12th to 14th February between 10am and 4pm. Work can be sent via courier / Royal Mail providing it arrives within this window. (Please note: the gallery retains the right not to hang selected work if it is not presented appropriately).
Sales of Work
The exhibition will open on Saturday 1st March 2025, and will continue in the gallery until Saturday 5th April and online until Saturday 19th April, during which period your exhibited work must be available to sell exclusively through Irving Gallery.
All exhibited artworks will be available to purchase in the gallery and online. All sales and transactions will be handled by Irving Gallery, and all payments received for the sale of exhibited works will be received by Irving Gallery. The artist will receive 60% of each sale and Irving Gallery will receive 40%, and the artist will receive their payment by bank transfer at the end of the exhibition.
Collection of Work
Collection of work from the gallery is entirely the responsibility of the artist. Unsold work must be collected from the gallery from 23rd to 25th April.
If you are unable to collect in person and you need Irving Gallery to return your work by post or courier, there will be a charge of £30 payable for packing and admin, in addition to the actual cost of shipping/postage.
Thank you once again for your interest in being part of this project. We very much look forward to seeing your submissions!
Please purchase your Artist Submission Pass below.
The Judges
Henry Ward
Henry Ward is an artist, writer, and educator based in London, whose work explores the language of paint and the delicate balance between abstraction and representation. Working primarily as a painter, Henry also creates drawings and small sculptures, often shifting between these forms to engage in a dialogue between different modes of expression. His practice is rooted in three distinct spaces: his kitchen table, where he crafts small objects; his shed, where he paints on paper; and his studio, which allows for deeper exploration of larger works. Each space brings a different pace and approach, informing and enriching his artistic process.
Henry’s work has been recognised widely, having been shortlisted for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize in 2018, 2019, and 2022, and longlisted for the Contemporary British Painting Prize in 2021. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including the inaugural “Football Art Prize” in 2022. His first major publication, Shed Paintings – Henry Ward, was released in 2021 by Hato Press and includes 101 works on paper alongside an essay by Ben Street.
In addition to his practice as an artist, Henry is deeply involved in arts education. He is the Director of Freelands Foundation, where he launched the Freelands Painting Prize in 2020. Previously, he served as Head of Education at the Southbank Centre and worked at Welling School, a Specialist Visual Arts College, where he founded the alTURNERtive Prize in 2002, an award celebrating outstanding student practice. In 2011, Henry launched the biannual arts and education periodical, æ.
Kate Shooter
Kate Shooter is one of Irving Gallery’s Gallery Artists and she has been exhibiting with the gallery since our inaugural show in November 2019. Kate works from her home studio near Abergavenny in south Wales. Kate studied art at Howard Gardens Art School in Cardiff and then Wimbledon School of Art in London, graduating in 1996. Her work is held in private collections worldwide and also several galleries across England and Wales.
Kate’s approach to painting has always been process driven. A fast conversation between mark and response allowing subconscious narrative to bubble up through the layers. Works often hover in that liminal space between abstraction and figuration. Teetering as always on the brink of knowable this ‘body’ of work seems to be exactly that… the artist’s experience of her physical self. Via enigmatic suggestions of body parts, fantastical x-rays, and interior landscapes we are exposed to the physical experience of being in one’s self at an almost cellular level.
“I paint intuitively, making fast decisions just ahead of allowing any conscious narrative to dictate. I’ve learnt my process invariably leads to a kind of enigmatic self-portrait making. The resulting work is at root my desire to render as authentically as possible what it is to be me; a human - in a house of blood and bones with its internal light show of chemicals firing chaotic highs and lows.”
Kate recently did a print residency resulting in an exhibition at Made Gallery Cardiff. She regularly runs drawing workshops, and she has an Automatic Drawing Workshop coming up at Irving Gallery on 22nd October.
Vanessa Lacey
Vanessa is Irving Gallery’s Founder and Curator. She launched the gallery in November 2019, shifting direction following a career in academic publishing to return to her passion for the visual arts. She curates exhibitions within the domestic spaces of her mid-terraced home in Oxford, UK.