Vol.7 - Finding Water in the West

Southwest Contemporary — Vol. 7 — Finding Water in the West

Southwest Contemporary invites artists throughout the Southwest to submit work to be included in Southwest Contemporary’s Spring-Summer 2023 issue, which will explore the theme “Finding Water in the West.”

Guest juror: Lucy R. Lippard, a writer/activist/sometime curator and author of 25 books on contemporary art activism, feminism, place, photography, archaeology, and land use.

Published: March 2023.

Deadline: November 18, 2022, 11:59 pm MT.

Click Here to Apply

About Vol. 7: Finding Water in the West.

Water is elemental. It connects us through time: through seasonal flows and from ancient wellsprings. Indigenous knowledge holds it as sacred, as life—as alive. Water is part of cleansing rituals and sacraments, baptisms, and blessings. It is foundational, sustaining, essential to life. For artists, water—its fluid nature, its signification, and symbolism—can be subject, medium, and form.

Yet water is a source of conflict and contention. The West is in a constant water crisis. As drought becomes megadrought, the use of water resources in this region reveals systems of mismanagement, misuse, and exploitation. Rivers draw borders, while the water within is allocated according to arbitrary and sometimes unjust systems. As water disappears and divides, artists track the effects of water scarcity and call for its preservation and protection.

This issue of Southwest Contemporary follows the flow of water—from monsoon storms, snow packs high in the mountains and aquifers deep underground, through irrigation channels and acequias, playa lakes and salt basins, in vessels and reservoirs, and flowing through mighty rivers that are dammed and diverted until they trickle out to the ocean as torpid streams.

We invite all artists (18+) in the Southwest whose work, in any medium, considers/responds to/engages with water to apply. In your work, water can be present as a subject of exploration, documentation, theme, or a part of your process or medium.

Selected Artists

Ten artists will be selected, and each artist will receive a profile article written by an SWC contributor accompanied by multiple images in print, a feature on SWC’s newsletter and social media channels, and a complimentary print copy of the issue.