Sensaflare invites UK-based artists to apply for What Still Grows, a research-led group exhibition at Lewisham Arthouse, London, taking place from 17–28 September 2026. The exhibition explores plants as carriers of embodied, local and intergenerational knowledge, considering how practices of care might reconnect body, land and community after exhaustion. All media are welcome, provided plants are integral to the work as subject, material, knowledge system, relational presence or method. Selected artists will exhibit in a public-facing, artist-led gallery and contribute to London’s independent art scene.

WHAT STILL GROWS

Bodies, Plants and Practices of Care

Group Exhibition Open Call

Sensaflare invites artists to submit completed works for What Still Grows, a group exhibition exploring the relationships between bodies, plants and practices of care.

About the Exhibition

What Still Grows will take place at Lewisham Arthouse in Deptford, South East London.

Lewisham Arthouse is a not-for-profit, artist-led arts organisation founded in 1992 and supported using public funding by Arts Council England.

Its Project Space is a public-facing gallery supporting contemporary exhibitions, experimental projects, workshops and public programmes.

The exhibition will be developed as a research-led curatorial project in which plants, space and sensory traces form a shared environment.

Different bodies, memories and traditions of care will be brought into proximity, allowing overlooked forms of embodied and situated knowledge to surface and continue circulating.

Installation: 16–17 September 2026
Private View: 17 September 2026, 18:00–21:00
Exhibition: 17–28 September 2026
De-installation and collection: 29 September 2026

Exhibition Concept

The exhaustion of contemporary bodies arises from the relentless extraction of life’s rhythms in the name of efficiency and standardisation.

Under the same logic, forms of plant knowledge grounded in touch, care and intergenerational transmission have been marginalised because they resist quantification, verification and archival capture.

Bodily depletion and the silencing of knowledge are, in this sense, two effects of the same structure.

The exhibition approaches plant-centred practices as ways of knowing through which this structure might be questioned.

Here, plants are no longer treated merely as images of nature.

They carry forms of knowledge that differ from modern systems of classification, standardisation and extraction—knowledge recognised through sensory experience and situated judgement, and passed on through families, communities, local memories and relations of care.

Plants, space and sensory traces converge, inviting visitors to step temporarily outside accelerated time.

The exhibition space operates as a metabolic system, bringing different bodies, memories and traditions of care into proximity.

In doing so, it seeks to reactivate suppressed modes of perception, allowing embodied knowledge and situated experience to surface and continue circulating.

What do our bodies remember? What continues to grow?

The exhibition ultimately turns towards a question of repair: after exhaustion and injury, can these obscured forms of knowledge continue to grow?

Through shared practices of care, might we begin to reweave the relationships between body, land and community?

Who We Are Looking For

We welcome completed works across all artistic media and forms.
Submitted works may respond to one or more of the following areas:

1. Plant Rhythms and the Body

Works exploring plant processes—including growth, dormancy, metabolism, decay and regeneration—in relation to human productivity, bodily exhaustion, recovery and alternative rhythms of life.

2. Plant-Borne Knowledge

Works engaging with local, Indigenous, diasporic, minoritised or culturally specific forms of plant knowledge, and considering how such knowledge is preserved, transmitted, marginalised or reactivated.

3. Plants and Practices of Care

Works exploring relationships between plants and collective care, healing practices, identity, migration, memory, belonging and community.

4. Classification and Extraction

Works addressing botanical archives, colonial collecting practices, medical standardisation, ecological extraction and the politics of which forms of knowledge are recognised, documented or preserved.

Please Note:

Plants must play an integral and irreplaceable role within the work—as a central subject, material, carrier of knowledge, relational presence, or creative method—rather than serving solely as visual imagery or decoration.



We particularly welcome practices informed by local knowledge, cross-cultural perspectives, personal experience, family histories, or community-based traditions.

Artists whose practices involve sound, performance, participatory projects, workshops, collective growing or knowledge-sharing are also encouraged to apply.

During the exhibition, we intend to connect with local organisations working across community growing, horticulture and ecological practice.

Who Can Apply

The open call is available to artists currently based in the UK.

We welcome applications from emerging and early-career artists, as well as practitioners whose work meaningfully responds to the exhibition framework.

Applicants should only propose work that will be available for the full exhibition period and that can be transported, installed and removed within the designated dates.

About the Organisers

Sensaflare is a London-based, research-led independent curatorial collective.

Our practice focuses on narrative-driven exhibition-making, sensory and spatial approaches, embodied knowledge, informal forms of care and the relationship between contemporary artistic practice and public engagement.

We develop exhibitions through dialogue between artworks, sites, artists and wider social contexts, with a particular commitment to supporting emerging artistic practices.

Artist Support

Selected artists will receive:

• an official participating artist announcement
• promotion through Sensaflare’s official social media channels (Instagram followers: 648, Rednote followers: 229)
• a dedicated artist interview or feature
• exhibition coverage across Lewisham Arthouse and Sensaflare’s websites and social media platforms
• professional exhibition photography
• an official certificate of participation
• participation in a research-led group exhibition within London’s independent art scene
• Selected artists may also be invited to contribute to workshops, talks, performances or other public programmes.

Expected Audience

We expect the exhibition to attract a mixed audience of local visitors, artists, curators, students, researchers, and members of London's independent art community.

As the exhibition will take place at Lewisham Arthouse, we anticipate engagement from its existing local and artistic networks, alongside audiences reached through Sensaflare's publicity, participating artists' networks, and social media promotion.

We cautiously estimate around 200-300 visitors across the exhibition period.

The exhibition is likely to be of interest to audiences engaged with contemporary art. We also expect visitors from art universities, emerging artist communities, and audiences interested in artist-led and independent cultural spaces in London.

Artist Responsibilities

• Selected artists will be responsible for:
• transporting their work to and from the venue
• installing their work during the designated installation period
• de-installing and collecting their work on 29 September 2026
• providing any specialist equipment required to present their work
• arranging any necessary insurance for their work and equipment
• completing one invigilation shift of approximately five hours during the exhibition

Applicants must confirm that they can fulfil all of these responsibilities before submitting.

Fees and Funding

There is no application fee.

No artist fee, transport funding, material funding or accommodation support is available.

Participating artists will be asked to pay a £60 contribution to venue fees.

Key Dates

Application deadline:

14 August 2026, 23:59 BST

Selection results:

By 23 August 2026

Installation:

16–17 September 2026

Private View:

17 September 2026, 18:00–21:00

Exhibition:

17–28 September 2026

De-installation and collection:

29 September 2026