Upfront Open Exhibition (2021)
PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO COVID-19 OUR ANNUAL “ARTISTS OPEN EXHIBITION” WILL NOT BE TAKING PLACE IN 2021/JANUARY 2022
The annual Upfront Open Exhibition is now in its 20th year and welcomes entries from all artists. The purpose of the show is to exhibit a wealth and wide cross section of artistic talent. The panel of judges choose an eclectic mix of work in various media and styles, both 2D and 3D. The exhibition displays around 100 selected works in our various gallery spaces.
The “Open Exhibition” is totally self-funded. Entry fees create a budget to stage and advertise the exhibition, to hold a preview evening and to award cash prizes.
There will be a First Prize of £1,000 plus other prize categories to be decided by the judges, according to the number of entries and the cross section of work submitted.
Artists are invited to submit up to 3 pieces of work. The on-line entry form below must be submitted. A non-refundable entry fee of £25 must be paid at the same time by following the PayPal link (which will also have the choice to pay by card if you do not have a PayPal account). Any other form of payment must be discussed with the gallery. All work submitted must be available for sale and have been produced during 2018 & 2019. The selling price must be set to include the Gallery commission, which is 40% of the selling price.
Images of work must be emailed to the gallery (info@up-front.com) as a jpeg, about 300dpi, at least 1,000 x 1,000 pixels, and no larger than 1MB. Please insert the required details, specified below, into the JPG image label. All emails will be acknowledged as safely received. Two images of one work may be submitted, if required, to show the texture, surface or form of the work from a different angle.
All images must be labelled with the artists surname first, followed by initials, title of the work, medium, size and selling price. The labelling of all images as specified is crucial for viewing by judges, so that they can be identified when transferred via computer and also so that they can be matched to application forms. Images that are labelled incorrectly will not be accepted.
Further Information
All forms and images must be recieved no later than midnight 31st December. Artists will be notified via email by 5pm 6th January if their work has been selected for the exhibition. We will only contact successful applicants and we would ask you to confirm the safe reciept of this email. Due to the number of entries and timescale, we do not notify unsuccessful applicants.
Artists who have had their work selected must arrange for the original piece of work to be delivered to the Gallery on Saturday 11th or Sunday 12th between the hours of 10am and 6pm. Your work must be signed in by gallery on delivery. The gallery will be closed to the public on the 13th of January, for the staff annual holidays and to prepare and hang the exhibition.
The exhibition will have a Preview on the evening on 27th January, 7pm – 9pm to which everyone submitting work is invited. Results of the selection panel’s choice for prizes will be announced at the Preview.
The exhibition will open to the public on the 28th January. All work that is not sold must be collected at the end of the exhibition, on Sunday 22nd March, after we close at 4:30pm and up to 6:30pm. Alternatively, work can be collected on the 23rd March, between 10:00am and 12:30pm. We request that all work is collected during the times specified as we will be in the process of hanging two new exhibitions and we cannot guarantee to have any safe storage spaces available.
The Gallery will endeavour to keep all sold work in the show until it closes on the 22nd March, however artists must accept that circumstances do not always allow this to happen. The exhibition attracts visitors from out of the county who purchase work and need to take it away with them.
The exhibition will have a selection panel of 3 people who will be sent the folder of digital entry images. The panel will consist of:
- A full time professional artist
- An arts practitioner – working and lecturing in visual arts
- An arts practitioner – working with artists, devising and curating exhibitions.
Sign Up Form
Tuesday 28th January – Sunday 22nd March 2020
Please follow the instructions and complete this interactive application form.