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OUCH!: A Call for Art About Pain

Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center   /   Deadline: 03/08/26

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The Cincinnati based non-profit arts organization and gallery, Manifest, invites visual artists and designers to submit works of art about the many facets of pain. Open to all traditional and non-traditional genre and media, including 2D, 3D, etc.

Pain happens within the body. It is hard to name, hard to prove. Empathy isn't enough—without visible wound, we rely on communication to express it. Sometimes expression, a call to be seen, a call for someone else to help heft the burden, is the only path to relief.
Pain may spur us on to make something great. It may teach us about danger, and it may encourage sympathy when we remember the frailty of all bodies. Recognizing it in art can twist our hearts into a new, more understanding, more understood shape.
Unfairly, it sometimes just is, without merit, without moral, closing us off rather than opening us up.
OUCH! is a call for art about the myriad things that hurt, physical, emotional, psychological, and the ways pain moves us; how it shapes us or lingers as a trace. This exhibition invites artists to share works that give form to hurt, or to its potential, bringing it into view with no promise of catharsis.

To read more and submit, visit:
https://www.manifestgallery.org/ouch

Location

Cincinnati, OH

Fees

$45 for up to THREE entries submitted. $5 per each additional entry.

Eligibility

Open internationally

Awards

Includes honorarium of $50 for each exhibiting artist, and Grand Jury Award of $1,000 for one jury-selected work from among the exhibits on view.

Contact Information

Jason Franz
2727 Woodburn Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45206

P: 513-861-3638
W: https://www.manifestgallery.org/ouch
E: info@manifestgallery.org