Call for Artists: Print Issue Southwest Contemporary Vol. 3 — Inhale Exhale

Juror: curator Julio César Morales, ASU Art Museum.

Deadline: May 31, 2021, 11:59 pm MDT.

Published: August 2021.

Just breathe. Inhale… exhale… These words might be heard in a yoga class or read in a children’s book. In recent years, the growing popularization of mindfulness has made society more aware of breath as a tool to manage mental and physical health, connect with one’s body, and become cognizant of one’s surroundings.

Breath is unconscious yet foundational to life. The last fourteen months have revealed that breath is not always available to those who need it. Many people ill with COVID-19 were saved by or perished in need of oxygen machines. Breath has become associated with social and racial justice as protesters chant “I can’t breathe.” Further, suffocating wildfires throughout the West and Southwest are annual reminders of climate change and the preciousness of air quality.

Breath has become a symbol in contemporary culture for the value of human life and raises the question, who has the privilege to breathe easy?

For Southwest Contemporary’s next issue, SWC invites artists (18+) living and working in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah to submit work in any media related to the theme “Inhale. Exhale.” Artists are encouraged to think broadly about these ideas.

Three selected artists will receive a profile article written by an SWC contributor accompanied by multiple images. Twelve or more additional artists will receive a two-page spread including two to three images and up to 300 words of text. All selected artists will receive a feature on SWC’s newsletter and social media channels and a complimentary print copy.

JUROR: CURATOR JULIO CÉSAR MORALES

This issue will be juried by Julio César Morales, an artist, educator, writer, and senior curator at the Arizona State University Art Museum in Tempe.

Morales’s curatorial work includes solo exhibitions with Superflex, Suzanne Lacy, Nina Beier, Ivan Argote, Tania Candiani, Miguel Calderon, Claudia Peña Salinas, Yoshua Okon, Koki Tanaka, Jennie C. Jones, Miguel Angel Rios, and Pablo Helguera. His own artwork explores labor, migration, and underground economies, and has been shown at the Lyon Biennale, Istanbul Biennale, Singapore Biennale, and Prospect 3, among others. The recipient of a 2020 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, his art is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Kadist Foundation, and others.