Call for artists - Exhibitions

Introduction

Every two years, Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art(Tephra ICA) presents the Mary B. Howard Invitational, a group exhibition featuring the work of regional contemporary artists. For each iteration of the show, Tephra ICA works with a guest curator to produce the exhibition through an open call for artists. This program values exhibition-making as a meaningful collaboration between artist and curator and a generative process that feeds the development and public presentation of innovative new work. The Invitational is named in memory of Mary B. Howard, an artist, long-time board member, and staunch supporter of Tephra ICA.

Call for artists - Exhibitions - Tephra ICA

Installation view of the 2025 Mary B. Howard Invitational featuring Nadia Nazar and Devin Harclerode

Exhibition Details

Regional artists working in any medium are invited to submit their qualifications in consideration of the 2027 Mary B. Howard Invitational Exhibition.

Exhibition dates: June 12–September 11, 2027

This year, Guest Organizer Tariq Allana will work with the selected artists to develop a group exhibition, for which each artist creates and presents new work.

This open call invites artists to respond to the idea of ‘assimilation’ as a complex and layered condition— that includes regional, social, political, historical, and material interventions. It is a concept that suggest not only as inclusion, but also serves as a site of tension, negotiation, and resistance.

Artists are encouraged to approach assimilation not as a singular or inherently positive process, but as one that is uneven, contested, and multifaceted. Works may examine how assimilation strengthens social structures by fostering cohesion and participation, while also acknowledging how the refusal or failure to assimilate can preserve cultural specificity, autonomy, and alternative modes of belonging—particularly within diasporic communities.

Equally important is assimilation as a material. Artists may explore how mediums converge, overlap, or resist one another: mixed media practices that fuse disparate techniques, materials, or visual languages; works where mediums exist in friction or contradiction or that exist in isolation, in the absence of any assimilation; or practices that foreground hybridity, layering, and transformation. Responses may be conceptual, historical, personal, or purely material, rooted in process as much as in content.

Exhibition Prompt: What aspect of the idea of assimilation, defined as you see appropriate, do you bring to your practice and why is it important that is remains an integral part of the works you produce?

About the Guest Organizer

Tariq Allana, Ph.D. is the Associate Director of Art Heritage, New Delhi, a gallery that was founded in 1977. In addition to being an integral part of the gallery’s annual programming, and public engagement around modern and contemporary art in South Asia, he has spearheaded a number of initiatives at the gallery including Art Heritage’s audio series. Tariq served as one of the co-founders of Delhi Art Week (2021–23), an initiative that expanded platforms for artists, galleries, and cultural institutions across India’s capital, and has consulted on similar initiatives in other India cities. He runs The Attentive Gallerist, an independent online knowledge base that places onto a single platform resources related to the business aspects of running an art gallery. Tariq has served on the Kala Sakshi Memorial Trust jury for several years, participated or moderated panel discussions around South Asian art ecosystem and authored articles related to printmaking in India.

Eligibility Requirements

• Artist must live or work in Washington, DC; Maryland; or Virginia
• Artist must pay a $25 application fee
• Artist must have availability during the first two weeks of December 2024 for installation and exhibition opening

How to Apply

Submit an Application through Jotform Here

You do not need to submit a specific artwork or exhibition proposal. Artists will be selected based on the quality of prior work and the ideas addressed in their statement of interest and artist statement. Selected artists will be supported in the creation of new work for the exhibition.

Application Materials

• Statement of Interest [Max 300 words] addressing the exhibition prompts: What are the ideas, research, and influences in your practice, and how does your work synthesize or articulate the interconnections between them? What are ways that you wish to expand your material practice in the next year? Describe how this new material, source, or technique could contribute meaning to your work
• Artist statement [Max 300 words]

Portfolio Submission and Image List

• Up to Ten (10) images
• All images must be in jpeg format (300 dpi). File name titles should follow this format: “Last name_Firstname_Image number.jpg”.
• If applicable, pp to 5 minutes of time-based media submitted as a Vimeo, YouTube, or SoundCloud link.
• Image list with Title, Year, and Medium for each item in your portfolio.

Incomplete or improperly submitted applications will not be considered.

Opportunity Details and Project Timeline

Tephra ICA will provide an honorarium of $500 and a $1000 production budget for each participating artist. Each artist will work with the guest organizer for 10 months to develop new work for the exhibition. This exhibition is produced at a professional standard, including installation, marketing and press coverage, installation photography, printed exhibtion materials, as well as the production of associated public programs.

May 1, 2026
Application Deadline

July 1, 2026
Artist Notifications

July, 2026–May, 2027
Exhibition and project development, facilitated by guest organizer working directly with participating artists

May 31–June 11, 2027
Exhibition Installation

June 12–September 11, 2027
Opening reception and artist talk on June 12

September 13–17, 2027
Exhibition deinstall period

Installation view of the 2025 Mary B. Howard Exhibition featuring Nadia Nazar and Devin Harclerode