The London Group Open 2017: Call for Entries

The London Group Open 2017
Call for Entries

The UK’s longest-running and most prestigious artists’ co-operative, The London Group, is delighted to announce the Call for Entries for its 83rd Open Exhibition. The London Group Open 2017 offers a wonderful opportunity for emerging and established artists to raise their profile, win cash and material prizes, and exhibit their work alongside the Group’s esteemed members.

“The London Group’s mission statement is to advance public awareness of contemporary art and the Group is seriously committed to offering artists the opportunity to show, giving them a boost in a tough career, and thereby nurturing and supporting the development of the art of the future. The Group feels privileged to be able to offer a number of valuable prizes and takes pride in acknowledging excellence through these awards. Past exhibitors have gained a great deal from showing alongside members, benefitting from the interaction, and have thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie for which the Group is well-known.” Susan Haire, President.

In recognition of today’s increasingly diversified art scene, The London Group Open welcomes innovative, challenging works in any medium, including painting, sculpture, drawing, print, photography, digital, audio, mixed media, installation, video and performance. Successful entrants to this year’s Open will see their work hung in one of two exhibitions staged during November and December 2017 at The Cello Factory.

A selection of generous awards will be presented to the most successful works on show, as judged by prize-givers and The London Group Selection Committee. Jane England, a Selector from The London Group Open 2013, remarks on the fairness of the process: “I was impressed by the excellent organisation and care put into the selection process, with every entry given equal consideration and put to a vote.”  

Prizes – which collectively total over £7000 – will be awarded to non-members and include The President’s Prize of a three-person show at The Cello Factory; two new prizes, The Victor Kuell Memorial Prize for innovation, for £1500, and The JPES Partnership Prize, for £1000; The Jeff Lowe Sculpture Prize, for £1000; The Chelsea Arts Club Trust Stan Smith Award for research and materials for an artist under 35, for £750; and The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers Prize for drawing, for £300. Another new prize – the Schauerman Prize for Digital Art is for £500. The prize will be selected by London Group members’ Genetic Moo, co-curators of The Mesh, currently on show at Watermans Art Centre. All non-members will be eligible for prizes.

In the 2015 edition of The London Group Open, the Ingram Collection of Modern British & Contemporary Art Purchase Prize was awarded for Karolina Magnusson-Murray’s dynamic video work Commanding Content, a testament to The London Group’s commitment to championing new media and embracing contemporary art in all its diversity.

Previous exhibitors have benefited from a range of subsequent career opportunities, with some even being invited to join The London Group as a member, testifying to the value of the Open as a means of gaining recognition.  Judith Jones LG, 2015 exhibitor and prizewinner describes entering The London Group Open as a life-changing experience: ‘…as an artist I had entered The London Group Open, and not only had they exhibited my work, but I had won a major prize, the fantastic GX Gallery had bought my work and then offered me a show which saw me entering into a relationship with GX Gallery in which they continue to represent me as a fine-art photographer.’

How to Enter:

Submissions for The Open 2017 should be made online, via the link on The London Group website: www.thelondongroup.com. There is a £20 entry fee for one submission, £35 for two submissions, and £45 for three submissions, to be paid online with the application. Artists can submit up to three works, which must have been produced since 2015.