Kinhouse Gallery is seeking work for their spring open call, The Gardener.
Inspired by the poem of the same title by Mary Oliver, this open call is a reflection on the garden and practices that encourage us to look, tend, cultivate, and slow down. There is magic in the balance of growing plants and embracing the wildness of the natural world. A practice in persistence, patience, and inter-dependency that we can all learn from the cycles of nature. Whether through the emergence of a new spring flower, the beauty of the overgrown, or the nurturing of a garden through the seasons, we seek art that speaks to the growing, tending, and admiration of botanical life.
In what ways do we interact with flora in our daily lives?
How does a gardening practice draw us into slowness and simplicity?
How does our panic and rising stress around climate change and the potential losses to come enhance our desire to enjoy the beauty the natural world offers us now?
Submissions with thematic elements related to seeding and growing, intimate gardens, the beauty and resilience of nature, routine and tending, and bringing the outside-in are encouraged.
The Gardener
Have I lived enough?
Have I loved enough?
Have I considered Right Action enough, have I
come to any conclusions?
Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?
Have I endured loneliness with grace?
I say this, or perhaps I’m just thinking it.
Actually, I probably think too much.
Then I step out into the garden,
where the gardener, who is said to be a simple man,
is tending his children, the roses.
Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings, p. 7
© 2012 by NW Orchard, LLC
First published by Penguin Press 2012
We welcome submissions either made from plant or floral material, inspired by plants and flowers or showing imagery of plants and flowers. Persons with any gender identity, ability, and from any location are welcome to apply. Work must be submitted in its finished state (no works in progress) and available to be shown during the months of March and April 2025 in our gallery in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA.
Call Ends: January 19th, 2025, Midnight EST
Artist’s Notified by: January 29th, 2025, Midnight EST
Work Must Arrive at KHG: February 27th, 2025
Exhibition dates: March 7th, 2025 – April 5, 2025
Exhibition opening: March 7th, 5-8pm, Kinhouse Gallery, Fort Wayne, IN
Email us with any questions at kinhouseart@gmail.com