Drift Work invites submissions from artists exploring coastal environments through material, memory, and transformation. We welcome works that consider marine and coastal life, ecological change, erosion, salvage, and the objects, traces, and stories returned by the tide. The exhibition explores the shoreline as a space of exchange, where natural forces, human histories, and more-than-human worlds meet.

Drift Work brings together emerging artists whose practices explore the shifting ecologies of coastal environments through material, memory, and transformation.

Taking the shoreline as a place where natural processes and human histories converge, the exhibition invites responses to marine and coastal life, erosion, tidal movement, salvage, wreckage, and the objects the sea returns.

From thriving ecosystems and changing habitats to rusted structures, washed debris ashore, and traces of industry, Drift Work considers the coast as a living archive, shaped by weather, time, and continual exchange.

This open call seeks work that reflects on the interconnected relationships between land, sea, people, and the more-than-human world, offering new perspectives on resilience, coexistence, and ecological change.

We are interested in practices that examine the coast as a place of transition, where ecological systems, material histories, and human intervention continually reshape one another.

Whether through observation, research, storytelling, material experimentation, or speculative approaches, we welcome submissions that respond to the complexities of coastal environments and the forces that define them.

Applications are invited from emerging artists, current students, and recent graduates working across all disciplines, including:

• Painting
• Sculpture
• Photography
• Printmaking
• Ceramics
• Textiles
• Illustration
• Fine art 

And other suitable mediums.

We encourage submissions that are experimental, research-led, site-responsive, or materially driven, as well as works that engage with themes of biodiversity, conservation, climate change, marine ecosystems, coastal communities, environmental stewardship, and the traces of industry embedded within the shoreline.

We are particularly interested in hearing from local artists from Brighton and the surrounding area.

Submission Deadline:

27th August 23:59 pm

Selected artists will be notified by the end of the 28/08/2026

Exhibition Dates:

Install 3rd September

Private View 3rd September (evening )

De-install: 13th September

Venue:

Gallery 19a

19a Hollingdean Terrace, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 7HB

What’s Included:

• Technical assistance with installation / deinstallation in the gallery
• Social event and networking
• Digital Letter of participation
• Documentation of work in the gallery space
• Promotional material to share with your networks
• Social media coverage via Instagram: We have  979 followers and counting.

Submission Fee:

• 1 Submission: £12
• 2 Submissions: £20

This fee covers all the above benefits - There are no futher fees once works are chosen.

About us:

We are Elephant Vision lab, a London-based artist duo collaboration, working across installation, sound, moving image, sculpture, and spatial design.

Bringing together backgrounds in sculpture, stage design, audiovisual practice, and narrative environments, their work explores how material, sound, and atmosphere shape bodily perception and spatial experience.

We have actively work in the exhibition sector between art universities providing curatorial and exhibition support for student exhibitions in London along with museums and galleries across the UK and Europe.

This is our fourth open call, building upon the success of Soft ground in December 2025, Loose ends in January and In Excess in May and Hit & Run in July 2026.

Additional Information:

• Artists are responsible for transport and insurance of their work
• Artworks will not be for sale by default, however artists can provide a QR code to a platform of  choice where they can individually sell work if they wish.
• Installation and deinstallation schedules will be communicated upon selection
• By submitting, artists grant permission to use images of their work for promotional purposes