Open Call: City of Substance
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Brief
“City of Substance” will be a mixed media pop-up exhibition and bar night exploring experiences with drink and drugs in London. Artists are encouraged to submit from a wide range of mediums: photography, painting, illustration, sculpture, textiles, fashion pieces, film, interactive art pieces, poetry, collage, found object, sensory art, mosaic, and anything else that tells a story of substance in London. We welcome the weird and wonderful just as much as the more common mediums of art.
We're interested in exploring all types of stories to do with drink and drugs-- everything from struggles with addiction to works based on fun little stories from nights out, from the sweetest of cocktails to the hardest of substances. The scope for this exhibition is kept broad to encourage a wide variety of works from a range of different backgrounds. Your unique perspective will be what makes this exhibition so incredible!
The deadline for submissions to City of Substance is January 1st, 2026.
The exhibition will be held on January 25th at The Red Bull in Peckham, London. Exhibitors will need to be available for set-up from 10AM on the day of the exhibition.
Submissions
Please read the below information carefully before submitting your application to have your work included in Cit of Substance.
There is no initial submission fee for consideration for City of Substance. Successful applicants will be required to pay an exhibition fee based on the size and format of their work. Applicants may submit multiple pieces, however please do submit only the exact number of pieces you wish to exhibit as this is how we will determine your exhibition fee. The final deadline for exhibition fees to be paid by will be the 15th of January.
A number of display options are available for exhibitors: the venue will be transformed with wall space for hanging vertical art, horizontal spaces for displaying media which is displayed flat, and two digital displays (one for images and one for short film/animation/other moving digital visual media.) The digital displays are televisions mounted at two of the ceiling corners of the venue, approximately two meters from the floor and facing at a slight downwards angle.
When making a submission please ensure you have carefully considered the best way for us to display your work to prevent any issues on the day of the exhibition. Successful applicants will receive further details following notification that their submission has been accepted. If you feel that none of the below options accurately describe the presentation requirements for your piece please do send an email to pseudo.silence@outlook.com to arrange alternative presentation.
Each piece exhibited will have a display card with the artists name nearby.
Standard wall hangings - £20 - Suitable for pieces less than A4 in size (or equivalent area).
Large wall hangings - £25 - Suitable for pieces less than A3 in size (or equivalent area).
Standard flat display - £35 - Suitable for pieces which occupy an area no larger than A4 (or equivalent area).
Large flat display - £40 - Suitable for pieces which occupy an area no larger than A3 (or equivalent area).
Digital image display - £5 - Images suitable for digital display (JPEG or PNG format)
Digital film display - £10 - Moving digital works (MP4 format) less than 5 minutes in duration
*Please note that whilst audio will be turned on for the digital displays the volume will be kept intentionally low to ensure that the whole exhibition can be enjoyed.
If you have any questions please do email pseudo.silence@outlook.com or send a message to @pseudo.silence on Instagram.
We look forward to seeing your work at City of Substance!