Why, hello there, dearest Filthy Dreams readers! Are you feeling obsessed? Are you creating fanatical artwork about women or women-identifying role models? Want to put your startlingly monomaniacal filth elder adoration into the world? Well, then, please think about applying to this open call for emerging artists for the group exhibition Idol Worship that I, your faithful Filthy Dreams co-founder, will be curating at Smack Mellon this November-December. Details below:
Smack Mellon is currently accepting applications from Emerging Artists to be considered for Idol Worship, an upcoming group exhibition organized by guest curator Emily Colucci. See below for application guidelines. In order to submit go to Submittable site and start your application here.
Application Deadline: May 30, 11:59 PM
Application Guidelines
Idol Worship
Curated by Emily Colucci
November 16–December 29, 2019 (dates to be confirmed)
In November–December 2019, Smack Mellon will present Idol Worship, an exhibition celebrating the ongoing cultural, social and political significance of role model adoration as an essential survival strategy. Smack Mellon is currently accepting applications from Emerging Artists to be considered for this exhibition.
Self-identifying women, in particular, are often overlooked as figures to be emulated, exempt from the label of “genius” so readily bestowed upon men. Partially inspired by John Waters’s Role Models, a pseudo-autobiography through his influences or “filth elders,” the exhibition will emphasize work that presents women and women-identifying role models as sources of possibility, creativity, courage, self-fashioning and sometimes, transgression. While teens’ fanatical impulse to paper their bedroom walls with imagery of their favorite stars is seen as merely an adolescent phase, Idol Worship asserts how the identification with role models is especially significant for those alienated from dominant social institutions, whether the biological family, history, or mainstream culture.
Idol Worship will be organized by guest curator Emily Colucci, whose proposal was selected through the Curatorial Proposal open call. To help elevate the profile of and bring greater exposure to emerging artists, this exhibition will include a combination of emerging artists chosen from an open call, as well as selected established artists. This open call is only for emerging artists, and at least half of the artists in the exhibition will be selected from this pool of applicants. An emerging artist is considered to be an artist without commercial representation who has a dedicated art practice but few opportunities to show at gallery or non-profit spaces. Submissions will be reviewed by the guest curator and Smack Mellon staff.
Artists whose practice includes paying tribute to, obsessing over, embodying, or otherwise complex engagements with women and women-identifying role models, heroes, idols, or filth elders, whether famous public figures, underground cult superstars, lesser known private muses, problematic faves, or unlikely sources of inspiration, are encouraged to apply. Transdisciplinary artists and cultural producers exploring the potential of role model worship as a source of sustainment are also of interest.
The exhibition will run from November 16 through December 29, 2019 (opening date to be confirmed).
Emily Colucci is a writer, curator and co-founder of Filthy Dreams, an award-winning blog analyzing art, culture and politics through a queer lens and a touch of camp. In 2016, she was awarded the Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for Filthy Dreams. In addition, Colucci has contributed to exhibition catalogues, most recently for Devan Shimoyama’s Cry, Baby at the Andy Warhol Museum, artist books, and online and print magazines, such as Conde Nast’s them., VICE, Salon, LA Review of Books and more. She has previously curated Night Fever at Pittsburgh’s Future Tenant, and co-curated Party Out Of Bounds: Nightlife As Activism Since 1980 at New York’s La MaMa Galleria with Visual AIDS, as well as its satellite installation Courtship Disorder by John Walter in London’s White Cubicle Toilet Gallery at the late George & Dragon Pub.
We welcome submissions of existing works and proposals for new projects. All media will be considered, including but not limited to 2D, 3D, sound, performance, installations, time-based, research-based, speculative projects, and public programs. All submissions will be reviewed in the order they are received.
May 30: Submission Deadline. Artists are encouraged to submit early. Submit your application using Smack Mellon’s online application portal on Submittable (click on Submit button to the left).
Early July: Selected artists will be notified. If selected, artwork must be received at Smack Mellon between 10am and 6pm on November 11. We recommend hand-delivering the work. Artwork can be shipped to the gallery, but Smack Mellon is unable to cover shipping or return costs. Under most circumstances artists will be expected to install their own work. Artists must pick up their work on either January 2 or 3, 2020 between 10am and 6pm.
The application process will require:
- 8 images and/or 3 videos.
- Work Sample Script. This information will be read when your work is viewed.
- Resume. Please include your name, address, phone number, and email address in this document along with exhibition and educational background.
- Artist Statement. In 250 words or less, write a statement about your work and your process.
Submit here: https://smackmellon.submittable.com/submit