We are looking for works that engage with the intersections of women / everyday objects / memory, across any medium including but not limited to moving image, installation, painting, sculpture, performance, sound, and text.

Open Call | Patina — Both Gallery, London
Exhibition: 10–23 August 2026 | Deadline: 31 July 2026

About the Exhibition

Patina refers to the lustre that forms on the surface of an object through years of handling — a beauty that accumulates slowly, through long use.

This exhibition takes everyday objects as its starting point. Through repeated, embodied contact, ordinary things become archives: they absorb time, hold memory, and carry what language often cannot.

Patina brings together works that attend to this quiet accumulation, exploring how women's experience — largely lived in domestic space, rarely entered into public record — finds its voice in matter.

We are looking for works that engage with the intersections of women / everyday objects / memory, across any medium including but not limited to moving image, installation, painting, sculpture, performance, sound, and text.

About the Venue

Both Gallery (Blue on the Hill CIC) is an artist-led, non-profit gallery founded in April 2023, situated on Archway Road in Highgate, opposite Highgate station.

Committed to showcasing emerging and underrepresented artists from marginalised groups, the gallery serves as a hub for creative dialogue within both the local and wider creative communities.

Its founding mission is to offer a platform for dynamic artists regardless of their financial capacity.

Directors: Justine Hounam & Donna Poingdestre

323 Archway Rd, London N6 5AA

Key Dates

• Installation: 10 August (daytime before 17:00)
• Private View: 10 August, 18:00–20:00
• Exhibition runs: 11–23 August 2026
• Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 12:00–17:00
• Deinstallation: 23 August (from 17:00)
   

What Artists Receive

Selected artists will benefit from social media promotion across platforms including Instagram and ArtRabbit, as well as an exhibition listing on the Both Gallery website. We are also working towards commissioning a critical exhibition text by a professional critic, to be published on an established UK arts media platform — this is our current plan and intention, though the specific publication and critic are not yet confirmed. We are committed to making this happen and will do our utmost to see it through.

We anticipate a minimum of 400 visitors over the course of the exhibition, supported through media coverage, on-site outreach, and public engagement programming including workshops and events.

Please note that works will not be available for sale during the exhibition.

How to Apply

This is a free open call — no fees of any kind are required from artists. We would prefer that selected artists are able to attend the gallery in person for installation, though we are open to discussion.

• Work(s) for consideration (images, video links, or documentation)
• A brief artist statement or work description
• Portfolio (optional)
• Submission deadline: 31 July 2026

About the Curators

Patina is curated by Xinxin Li and Liyuan Sun, two London-based independent curators whose practices share a sustained focus on feminist contemporary art and the experiences of women and non-binary individuals. Both hold postgraduate degrees from the University of Edinburgh, and have collaborated on multiple exhibitions across London and Shanghai, including They Call Me Witch (The Crypt Gallery, London, 2025), Corpus:Her Embodied Archive (Three Rooms Gallery, London, 2025), and Matriarchal Myth: A Group Exhibition of Women Artists (Aolab Experimental Gallery, Shanghai, 2025). Feminist art and the recovery of underrepresented voices form the core of their long-term curatorial commitments — making Patina not a one-off project, but part of an ongoing practice.