Open call: Looking for early-career creatives to feature in print and exhibition

mates magazine Issue #002: STRANGERS

mates magazine is a non-profit, annual publication led by and for early-career creatives. We engage and develop emerging talent through commissions, editorial development, and exhibition opportunities. 

For this issue, we invite early-career, under-represented UK writers, photographers and creatives to contribute work that critically engages with the issue’s central question, ‘Who is really a stranger?’

We invite early career UK-based writers, photographers and creatives to contribute work that critically engages with the issue’s central question, ‘Who is really a stranger?’

Through art, photography, writing and editorial practice, the issue will explore the ‘strange’, ‘stranger’ and ‘other’ in contemporary UK culture. We are interested in how strangeness is experienced, constructed, resisted, or reimagined in today’s social, political and cultural landscape. 

Contributors are asked to make new work or submit existing work that responds to this theme. We also welcome work that engages critically, imaginatively, or experimentally with the following topics:

• British identity, globalisation, religion and colonial legacies
• Technology and AI
• The embodied: memory, mental health, language and intimacy

Meet the Selection Panel

• Nikki Nita Ramírez – Curator, Art Historian, Co-Founder of Danuser & Ramírez
• Temitayo Famakinwa – Curator, Media Coordinator at Saatchi Yates
• Stella Smith – Curator and Consultant, Founder of Izena Art Advisory
• Julita Mahner Viñas – Cultural Curator, Art Director, Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, RCA BLK Mentor

What Selected Contributors Receive

• A feature in a 200-page print magazine issue
• Exhibition opportunity at a London gallery (2-3 October 2026)
• Portfolio credits, editorial development, and mentorship where possible
• A paid commission rate
• Production expenses covered

There is no fee to submit.

Eligibility

Open to UK-based early career, under-represented creatives working in any medium (excluding AI-generated work). No academic background is required.

We particularly encourage submissions from under-represented practitioners, including (but not limited to) those from working-class backgrounds, diasporic communities, people of colour, people with disabilities and marginalised genders or sexualities.

Timeline

• Submissions open: 15 May 2026
• Submissions close: 15 June 2026
• Successful contributors announced by: 20 June 2026
• Issue launch and exhibition: 2-3 October 2026 - London, UK