CURRENTS 2024: Free Expression and the Inexpressible

EXHIBITION DATES: January 6 - February 4, 2024

DEADLINE: September 30, 2023 at 11:59 PM EDT

SLIDING SCALE APPLICATION FEE: $10, $20, $30

         A.I.R. Gallery is currently accepting submissions for the 2024 CURRENTS Exhibition, Free Expression and the Inexpressible, through September 30, 2023. Curated by artist and theorist Aliza Shvarts, this exhibition invites work from artists working across all forms and disciplines who are interrogating the edges of free expression, mining its history, and positing new ways of thinking about what we can and cannot express. 

         “Freedom of expression” is a principle and right that is meant to protect the voices of the disempowered. Crucially, it promises to safeguard our capacity to speak our truth, critique systems of power, and demand a better world. Yet free expression has never been a right without exception, or even a right enforced and distributed equally. At times, the freedom of expression of some comes at the expense of the silencing of others—particularly women, queer people, people of color, indigenous people, and people with disabilities. In these instances, “freedom” can be an alibi for reinforcing domination: a term invoked to disavow language’s violent effects when someone says something hateful.

         We are living through a dramatic repolarization of the cultural debates over the meaning of free expression. Between the alarming rise in book bans, restrictions on drag performance, and legislation such as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, there has been an unprecedented rise in censorship and dismantling of First Amendment protections. At the same time, cancel culture, misinformation, and deep fakes have prompted us to reconsider the social responsibility that comes with freedom, while the advent of AI-generated text and images adds further dimension to the age-old question of what it means to “express.” 

         Art has long navigated the space between free expression and the inexpressible. Artistic practice deals in representation, meaning that it navigates the limits of what can be rendered in language, images, performance, and aesthetic experience more broadly. Feminist art in particular has a long history of challenging which forms of expression are valued culturally and which have been dismissed. The 2024 CURRENTS exhibition aims to stage connections between the personal and political dimensions of expression and inexpressibility. Artists are invited to explore expression as a social and legal question as well as a creative, psychological, technological, affective, and material one. 

Aliza Shvarts is an artist and theorist who takes a queer and feminist approach to reproductive labor and language. Her artwork has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Tate Modern, Athens Biennale, Centre for Contemporary Art FUTURA, Galeria Municipal do Porto, Galerie Maria Bernheim, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Leslie-Lohman Museum, Participant Inc, Art in General, and SculptureCenter. Her writing and interviews have appeared in October, Artforum, The Cut, e-flux, Art in America, Whitechapel Documents in Contemporary Art: Practice, Art Journal, TDR/The Drama Review, Women & Performance, and The Brooklyn Rail among other publications. She was a Helena Rubinstein Fellow at the Whitney Independent Study Program (ISP), Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow at the Whitney Museum, Recess Critical Writing Fellow, A.I.R. Artist Fellow, and Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grantee. She has lectured and taught widely, including at Barnard College, Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. She holds a BA from Yale University and a PhD in Performance Studies from New York University.

         SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
 

• Works must be pre-existing and ready for exhibition. Proposals for new works are not accepted.
• Images must be JPG files only.
• Each image may not exceed 1MB and 1000 pixels in any direction.
• Images MUST be oriented properly (ex: top of the image is up).
• Videos must be .MOV or MP4 format only and must not exceed 3 minutes in length.
• Videos and credits must not contain the artist name.
• Text submissions must be in PDF format.
• Sound submissions must be in MP3 format.

THIS IS AN ANONYMOUS REVIEW. Absolutely none of the submitted materials may include the artist’s name; the artist's name may not appear in the file name or body of images, statement, CV, or any other submitted files. If a submitted file contains or is titled with the artist's name, the submission will be disqualified.

         PLEASE NOTE
 

• You must fill in all fields and upload at least 3 images in order for your application to be complete.
• Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
• Applications will be reviewed in OCTOBER 2023. Due to the large volume of submissions, the gallery is unable to respond to individual inquiries regarding application status.
   

2024–2025 A.I.R. GALLERY FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION

A 12-month sponsored A.I.R. membership and solo exhibition opportunity for emerging and underrepresented women and non-binary artists.

ELIGIBILITY:

In order to be eligible for the A.I.R. Fellowship program you must:

• Be a woman or non-binary artist.
• Be 18 years of age or older.
• Be a resident of New York City, adjoining counties, or the Hudson Valley (Putnam, Dutchess, and Ulster counties). (September 2024–August 2025)
• Not have had a solo exhibition at a permanent venue in NYC in the last 5 years.
• Not be a student or enrolled in any degree-seeking program at the time of the program. (September 2024–August 2025)
• Not be participating in a comparable development, fellowship, or residency program during the Fellowship. (September 2024–August 2025)
• Not be a current member, employee, or board member of A.I.R. Gallery and must never have had a solo show at A.I.R. Gallery.
• Not be a Fellowship alum. 

 
Not sure if you qualify? Check our frequently asked questions page for more info.

A Fellowship Program Info Session will be held on Saturday, September 23 at 12 PM ET via Zoom. To register, click here.

Artists awarded the A.I.R. Fellowship will receive a solo exhibition sponsored in full by the gallery, development workshops led by a professional in the field, a one-on-one studio visit with one of the review panelists, an artist-mentor at A.I.R. Gallery to work with throughout the program, and much more.

Fellowship artists are required to develop and execute one community project in the spirit of A.I.R.’s community. Artists will present a brief artist’s talk at the opening reception for their exhibition. They are expected to commit to participation in the program and the A.I.R. community by attending events and workshops.


WORK SAMPLES

To apply, please submit five unique work samples. Two of these samples must be images. The other three can be images, videos, or audio files. All work samples must have been completed within the past three years (from 2020 onwards).


IMAGE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES  

• 72ppi, JPG, RGB files only.
• Images must not exceed 5 MB in size.
• Images MUST be oriented properly (ex: top of the image is up).
• All file names must be labeled with Title, Year, Medium, Dimensions (H x W x D), i.e. Untitled 2, 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 14x14 inches.jpg. Please DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR NAME IN THE FILE NAME.
• You must fill in all fields and upload all 5 images in order for your application to be complete.

 
VIDEO SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 

• Video samples must not exceed 1 minute in length and 100 MB in size.
• Video submissions must be original, time-based artworks (i.e. a clip from a video or film, or performance documentation). Please NO "behind the scenes" or "personal statement" videos.
• Video must be submitted as .MOV or MP4 format.
• Video credits must not contain the artist name.
• All file names must be labeled with Title, Year, Medium, Duration, i.e. Untitled 2, 2019, digital video, 15 minutes.mp4.

 
ADDITIONAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 

• All questions should be answered to the best of your ability.
• Please submit CVs and artist statements in PDF format ONLY.
• THIS IS AN ANONYMOUS REVIEW. Absolutely none of the submitted materials may include the artist's name; the artist's name may not appear in the file name or body of images, statements, CVs, or any other submitted files. If a submitted file contains or is titled with the artist's name, the submission will be disqualified and the artist will not be permitted to re-apply until the next Fellowship cycle. 
• Any application that does not adhere to our guidelines will be automatically disqualified.
• No hyperlinks (i.e. to a personal website, Dropbox folder, etc.) allowed. Work samples must be uploaded directly to Submittable.

 

SELECTION PROCESS

Each year, a rigorous selection review is conducted by a panel of three outside curators, critics, and established artists. Through a multi-round process, artists are selected based on the quality of and commitment to their work. A final interview and selection is made by A.I.R. Gallery Artists. A mandatory in-person interview is held prior to being accepted to the program. The A.I.R. Fellowship Program is open to artists working in all media and is intended to support those who could most benefit from the opportunities that the program offers.  Six artists will be awarded a Fellowship. This year's panelists are curator Stamatina Gregory, curator Stamatina Gregory, and artist Sam Vernon.

A.I.R. Gallery reserves the right to omit any applications that do not meet our specifications.

If for any reason you do not get an email confirmation from Submittable after applying, please email info@airgallery.org. All applicants will be notified by APRIL 2024. Because of the large volume of applications receive, we are unable to respond to individual inquiries regarding the status of applications.