Transient States continues an ongoing curatorial research exploring conditions that shape perception, experience, and our relationship to the world around us. Following Scentless Depths (2025) and the two editions of The Body as a Threshold (2025–2026), this new exhibition turns its attention to processes of transformation, emergence, and becoming.

We are interested in forms that occupy a space between states: structures that appear balanced yet vulnerable, images that emerge and dissolve, materials that reveal processes of change, and environments shaped by forces that remain partially hidden from view.

Rather than understanding transformation as a dramatic event, the exhibition seeks works that engage with quieter and more gradual shifts.

Landscapes erode, images are reconfigured, materials fracture and reform, bodies adapt, and environments continuously negotiate between permanence and change.

These processes are understood not as fixed outcomes but as conditions that remain open, unstable, and unresolved.

We invite works that explore:

• states between presence and absence, formation and dissolution;
• instability, vulnerability, and provisional balance;
• processes of erosion, accumulation, growth, or decay;
• forms that resist fixed definition;
• material, environmental, psychological, or temporal change.

We are particularly interested in works that create a felt experience of transition and uncertainty, where forms remain in flux and meaning emerges gradually through observation.

Artists are encouraged to propose works that invite slow looking, reveal layered processes, or engage with states that remain unresolved and continuously evolving.

We welcome submissions in installation, sculpture, painting, photography,  and mixed media.

About the Exhibition

Transient States will take place from 20–22 July at Zhen Yi Gallery,  in Paris’s 11th district, with expected footfall from artists, art enthusiasts, local residents, and visitors interested in contemporary culture.

Who Can Apply

We welcome international and local submissions from emerging and mid-career artists.

About the Organisers

Zhen Yi Gallery, founded in 2025 by curator Evgeniya Makarshina (IESA graduate), is a nomadic, research-driven curatorial platform based in Paris.

Each exhibition is conceived as a project, building on previous iterations and contributing to a continuous conceptual development.

The gallery develops curatorial projects exploring perception, transformations of identity, and the relationship between the body, environment, and contemporary conditions.

The founder actively engages with the international art community and has over 500 professional connections on LinkedIn.

What We Offer

• Exhibition in Paris 
• Curatorial guidance and installation support
• Promotion on the gallery’s social media platforms
• Each participating artist will be featured  on the gallery's instagram with a post  introducing their artwork
• Artists may be featured on the gallery's website if they wish
• Publications in international media — the UK-based The Urgency of Art (yishunart.com)
• Certificates of participation
• Recommendation letters
• Networking and cross-cultural exchange
• 0% commission on artwork sales

Audience and Visibility

The gallery is located in Paris’s 11th district, a lively cultural area known for its independent creative spaces, vibrant neighbourhood life, and active artistic community.

Visitor Attendance:

The exhibition opening (vernissage) typically attracts approximately 30–40 visitors, including artists, curators, collectors, and members of the public.

Visitor Profile:

The gallery audience includes artists, curators, collectors, art enthusiasts, and  visitors interested in contemporary culture and emerging artistic practices.

Submission Terms

Exhibition contribution (only if selected): £170 / €200

This contribution supports exhibition production, installation, and gallery space expenses.

Delivery and return of artworks to/from Paris are the responsibility of the artist.

Deadline: 5 July, 2026

Zhen Yi  Gallery

@zhen_yi_gallery