call for art - archive the west

archive the west is our Summer 2025 online juried exhibition.

The Western United States has become a long-standing art trope. Images of Monument Valley and other iconic landmarks have saturated the art-sphere, but these often seem like one-offs or fetishization devoid of a necessary context. Absent a larger series or archive, these depictions often rely on shallow understandings of the region’s cultural history. For this call, we want to see depictions of the American West that draw upon personal or collective archives. Use them as inspiration or building blocks in the work itself. Dig into dusty prints or negatives that speak to the wild beauty, austere landscape, and diverse happenings of the American West, or provide original pieces from a current project that incorporates or addresses the archives’ informing role. We want to see them! 

The exhibition will examine these ideas through a variety of mediums in art. Any mediums are welcome, including but not limited to sculpture, painting, collage, photography, digital art, video art, installation, ceramics, performance art…anything you can think of! You may submit up to 3 artworks for a $5 fee, due July 20, 2025. Artists will receive a notification a week after the deadline. Students may submit for free with the code STUDENT25 (to use this, please use your school email when applying). The exhibition will go live August 2025.

If you have any questions, please reach out to us at midwestniceart@gmail.com.

https://www.midwestnice.art/opencalls/west