Illusions are as human as the opposable thumb. Vision is an amazing thing but deeply flawed; our brains fill the gaps and tell us what we expect to see. For our second open call we want the artists to play with their own illusions. A forgotten detail, a lurking figure? Visual, audio or tactile we want you to be imaginative.

The exhibition will take place in the Old Biscuit Factory in Bermondsey from March 20th- March 25th.

*- Inllusios are as hmuan as the oppolsbae tmuhb -*

*- Voiisn is an azmaing tnihg, but aslo depely fwlaed. Our brnais flil gpas and tlel us waht we epxect to see -*

For example – did you know that we are always looking at our noses? Our brains

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pretends it isn’t there and carries on.

An illusion can be anything that is overseen, a shadow, usually ignored.

A colour in the right place, a detail in a realistic image.

A shape in a sculpture

A glance in a video

A moment in a performance

A figure lurking in a photo

We want to see your illusions. Your oversights.

Things overlooked.

An echo

A false idea or belief

Our brains want to make everything simple, easily understood. It is constantly in a fight to process the world as quickly as possible and is highly tuned to spotting patterns.

B r e a k and HIGHLIGHT.

We are open to all illusions and submissions – audio, visual, tactile. Our first exhibition had over 400 people through the door on the opening night. We want anything: painting, drawing, sculpture, video, performance and we want our artists to think outside of the box and the viewer to see the through the curtain..

We are open to workshop and talk ideas as part of our Open Call in London and want to work with you to ensure that the gallery can have as much life as possible throughout the week. Please include any talk and workshop ideas in the original email submission.

Prizes

For this show we will be doing something a little different – we are in a position to offer a prize for the top 3 democratically voted artists. Each viewer will have one chance to vote on their favourite artist which will be entered into a transparent ballot box on the night. The ballot will be strictly guarded with the artists manning the box.

After the vote the participant artists will count the votes with the following prizes:

1st place: 1 Year of free exhibitions for our overseas programme – including: Berlin, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Rome, New York, Stockholm in 2020.*

2nd place: A free exhibition space and £300 cheque immediately payable to the artist.

3rd place: A free exhibition space in our overseas programme.**

*We will handle all expenses around inventory, packaging, transport, logistics for the 1st place prize winner once the piece is in our London offices.

**In a location mutually agreed between the artist and Nou Wave Gallery.

Submission Guidelines

To take part artists will need to pay a fee of £190 upon acceptance payable by PayPal.

We provide:

• A venue
• Promotion
• Press opportunities
• A full sales e-catalogue and printed catalogue with a constantly evolving sales strategy constantly reacting to the art market
• Security
• Insurance
• Food
• Drink
• Photography
• Videographer
• Live Music
• Awards for the top 3 artists

To enter:

• No more than 3 pictures
• Title of the piece
• Dimensions of the pieces
• Medium
• Year
• Price
• A short biography

The deadline for the London open call is the 1st March. We will be announcing artists ahead of time, with a strict limit on the artists participating in the show with curation handled by the Nou Wave team. We want to make the best show we can with the time available and celebrate creativity allowing each of the works to sing.

In our last show we targeted 300 people in the audience and we welcomed over 400 people through the door. In the illusions exhibition we are using two gallery spaces and aiming for over 1000 people.

We will be publicising selected artworks on our Instagram and Facebook.

The exhibition will take place in the Old Biscuit Factory in Bermondsey from 20th - 25th March 2020.