Pareidolia - Recognizing what we wish to see

PAREIDOLIA describes the human tendency to see familiar images—often faces, figures, or symbols—within randomness, texture, and abstraction. This exhibition approaches pareidolia as a process of recognition and response—a moment when the artist sees something forming within the material and decides to bring it forward. Recognizing what we wish to see becomes both an act of perception and a gesture of authorship, shaped by hand, surface, and time.

Artists are invited to submit work that reflects this way of working: allowing images to surface gradually through drawing, painting, carving, layering, erasing, staining, assembling, or other physical processes. The emphasis is on analog practices where material qualities, chance marks, and intuition guide the final form. Work may explore faces or figures emerging from abstraction or texture, pattern recognition and visual suggestion, the space between intention and accident, imagery shaped by intuition rather than planning, or beauty discovered through process, imperfection, or ambiguity.

This call is limited to non-digital media. Eligible submissions include painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, collage, assemblage, textiles, ceramics, and film-based or darkroom photography. Digital artwork, digital manipulation, and AI-generated work will not be considered. Entry deadline: February 20, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. CST. Entry fee: $20.00 plus $5.00 media fee. Submit 1-20 high-resolution images (JPEG/PNG) with a brief artist statement (150 words) for each work. Exhibition dates: March 21 - April 11, 2026. All accepted works must be ready to install or hang; artists are responsible for shipping/delivery. Contact: [email protected].