Open calls and competitions for artists

Being part of an exhibition where your work has been selected by judges, hung nicely, and lit on a crisp gallery wall can feel very special. It’s a chance to get your work noticed, meet other artists, take some nice photos to share on social media, maybe even sell your work, and generally feel good about your painting practice.

Entering open calls and competitions can be time consuming and quite expensive (galleries and competitions cost a lot to run!), so choose wisely to make sure you only enter those that are suitable for your work. I always recommend that artists visit exhibitions the year before to get a feel for what the judges are looking for. There’s always a distinct flavour to what each open call selects. If you can’t get to see an exhibition, you can probably still find the selected works online.

You should probably research who the judges are too. What type of work do they align themselves with? Which pieces of your work do you think they might select?

Most open calls request that you upload a photograph of your work with your application, so you will need to make sure that you take a really good photograph, or if the work is small enough, you could use a scanner. Make sure your work is in focus, in good light, with no reflections, cropped to the edges, and with colours and tones that match your painting.

I wish you lots of luck and hope to see your work hanging in a gallery soon. If however, you did your research, and you sent in an amazing photograph of your work, and it still didn’t get selected, try not to get too down about it. There will have been a lot of good entries like yours and there’s a lot of luck involved in catching the right judges eye at the right time too. I do believe however, the more open calls you enter, and the more open exhibitions you visit, the more knowledgeable you will become, and your chances will increase.

There are plenty of open calls with deadlines coming up, so start clicking the links below to find the ones that fit your work the best:

Royal Society of Portrait Painters 
Deadline: 4/2/25

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
Deadline: 11/2/25

The Artist and Leisure Painter Open Art Competition (TALP Open)
Deadline: 17/2/25

Jackson’s Art Prize
Deadline: 25/2/25

London Art Biennale
Deadliine: 28/2/25

NEAC
Deadline: 14/3

The Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize
Deadline: 2/5/25

Hampstead Art Society
Deadline: 5/5/25

Coming soon:

Chelsea Art Society

John Moore’s Painting Prize
Deadline 24/3