SHAPING THE VIEW explores the conditions that influence how we see, interpret and experience artworks. The way we see an image, object or space is never entirely neutral. What we notice, understand or overlook can be influenced by framing, perspective, context, technology, distance, attention, expectation, environment and our own position.

For this open call, we are looking for artists whose work explores the  factors that shape how we see and understand what is before us.

We are interested in works that question or complicate the way something is presented, perceived or interpreted.

A particular perspective can make some things visible while concealing others.

A change of context can alter the meaning of an image or object. 

An artwork can direct our attention, challenge an expected reading, introduce competing viewpoints, or make us aware that what we see is never entirely separate from how it is presented.

We invite artists to consider what shapes a view — whether through framing, composition, perspective, spatial arrangement, technology, context, visibility, concealment, or the relationship between the viewer and the work.

We are interested in practices that explore:

• framing and perspective
• technological mediation and digitally shaped ways of seeing
• context and its influence on meaning
• seeing and being seen
• visibility and concealment
• distance and proximity
• attention, distraction and prolonged looking
• position and viewpoint
• expectation and interpretation
• the relationship between viewer and artwork
• different or conflicting ways of seeing
• how an artwork changes when encountered in different contexts.

The work does not need to address these ideas explicitly or theoretically. They may emerge through image-making, material, composition, spatial relationships, technology, subject matter or the way an artwork directs the viewer's attention.

We welcome different approaches to the theme and are particularly interested in works that make us reconsider what we see, how we see it, or why we see it in a particular way.

Media

We welcome submissions across a broad range of media, including but not limited to:

photography, painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, installation, video and moving image, digital and new media, mixed media, textile and material-based practices, conceptual and site-responsive practices.

About the Exhibition

Shaping the View will be presented at Zhen Yi Gallery,  at 17 rue Chapon, 75003 Paris, in the vibrant Marais district, with expected footfall from both local art audiences and international visitors.

The exhibition will bring together artists working across different media and approaches, whose practices explore how our ways of seeing are shaped by different influences.

About the Organisers

Zhen Yi Gallery is a Paris-based nomadic contemporary art gallery and curatorial research platform, founded in 2025 by curator Evgeniya Makarshina.

As a nomadic gallery, it works across different spaces in Paris, creating flexible contexts for exhibitions, collaborations and artistic exchange.

The founder actively networks within the international art community, having over 500 professional connections on LinkedIn.

During its first year, Zhen Yi Gallery featured 38 artists across 5 exhibitions.

The gallery's programme has developed through a continuing interest in how experience is shaped through the body, perception, material and surrounding environments, as well as through memory and time.

Its exhibitions have examined questions around boundaries, presence and absence, visibility, transformation, uncertainty and the ways in which we encounter and interpret the world around us.

With Shaping the View, the gallery develops this research further by turning towards the conditions that influence looking itself.

Previous Exhibitions

Suspended (2026) — explored suspension as a condition in which different temporalities, meanings and possibilities coexist.
Transient States (2026) — examined uncertainty and experiences that resist resolution, inviting attention to moments in which meaning and perception remain open.
The Body as a Threshold — Edition II (2026) — continued the investigation of the body as a threshold, focusing on identity, movement, constraint, symbolic dispersion and  extension and the traces through which the body is encountered indirectly.
The Body as a Threshold (2025) — approached the body as a site of passage where sensation and perception meet, exploring permeability, inner and outer experience, surveillance and the pressures of the surrounding world.
Scentless Depths (2025) — explored water as rhythm, resonance and invisible presence, considering depth, permeability, transformation and what remains unseen.

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 (363 followers)  with a post  introducing their artwork
• Artists may be featured on the gallery's website if they wish
• Certificates of participation
• Recommendation letters
• Networking and cross-cultural exchange
• 0% commission on artwork sales

Audience and Visibility

The gallery is located in the Marais district of Paris,  one of the city’s main contemporary art destinations.

Visitor Attendance

The exhibition opening (vernissage) typically attracts approximately 40–60 visitors, including artists, curators, collectors, and members of the public.

Visitor Profile

The gallery audience includes artists, curators, collectors, art enthusiasts, and international visitors exploring the Marais gallery district.

Submission Terms

Exhibition participation 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. Photographs can be printed in Paris by the gallery, with the printing costs covered by the artist.

One artwork per submission form.  

Deadline: 4 October, 2026

@zhen_yi_gallery