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National Artist Call-2

 

Reconstruction 2.0: Allegories of a Better World

Submission Opens: March 28, 2026

Submission Deadline: May 15, 2026

Artists Notified By: May 22, 2026

Public Exhibition Date: June 28, 2026

Exhibition Venue: Minneapolis Institute of Art

OMG Studios announces a call to artists for a juried art exhibition, Reconstruction 2.0: Allegories of a Better World, at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, June 28, 2026. Artists are invited to submit original works which reflect the world they want to see, examining themes such as:

  • Virtue and moral courage
  • Nobility beyond class or status
  • Truth, justice, and liberation
  • Reconstruction and unlearning
  • Memory, history, and inherited systems
  • Cultural healing and collective imagination
  • Confronting ignorance, silence, and erasure
  • Envisioning a more equitable future

Works should center visual storytelling and historical reflection. See Juan de Pareja, Diego Velazquez (1650); The Calling of Saint Matthew, Juan de Pareja (1661); Allegory of the Planets and Continents, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1752); and Standing Rock, Jim Denomie (2016).

This exhibition is happening in conjunction with the release of film, “The Making of America,” a humanities documentary from OMG Studios and Minnesota Humanities Center, that examines how Enlightenment-era systems of knowledge—art, science, architecture, and cartography—produced enduring frameworks for racial slavery, territorial extraction, and Indigenous dispossession in what became the United States. The film advances the argument that these outcomes were deliberate consequences of its visual and systemic commitments to order, hierarchy and control. Exhibited works may be featured in the film.

Eligibility

  • Media accepted: painting, mixed media
  • Must reside in the United States
  • Emerging, mid-career, and established artists encouraged to apply

Guidelines

  • Work must be created on a 24 x 36 inch gallery canvas
  • Artwork must be original
  • Work must align with the exhibition theme (as outlined above)
  • Artists may submit up to 2 work(s)
  • Submitted work must be exhibition-ready
  • Work must not infringe upon the copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights of any person or entity
  • Artists must have full authority to submit the work
  • Work that includes plagiarism, unauthorized copyrighted material, or misleading authorship will be disqualified
  • Submission does not guarantee selection
  • Artists are responsible for providing accurate information and high-quality digital files
  • Artists must meet all deadlines for submission, confirmation, and delivery
  • If selected, artists agree to provide final materials and any requested supporting information by the stated deadlines
  • OMG Studios reserves the right to reject work that does not match submission images, thematic intent, or presentation standards
  • OMG Studios reserves the right to reject work deemed offensive, defamatory, unlawful, or inconsistent with the exhibition theme

Juried Exhibition Rules

All submissions will be reviewed by a panel assembled by OMG Studios and its program partners. Artists will be notified if their work was selected by May 22, 2026. Jury decisions are final.

Submission Required Fields 

  1. Artist name
  2. Contact name (if different from artist name)
  3. Email address
  4. Phone number
  5. City and state
  6. Artist bio
  7. Artist statement
  8. Title of artwork
  9. Medium: Mixed-Media, Visual Art, Sculpture, Digital
  • Year Completed
  • High-resolution image of submitted artwork
  • Brief written response to the intake questions
  • Website social media

Video submission (recommended/optional)

Artists are invited to submit a short video (suggested length: 1–3 minutes). The video may be recorded on a phone. Artists may speak directly to the camera, narrate over images, or combine both. The video may include: 

  • An introduction to you as an artist
  • Your thoughts on the exhibition theme
  • Insight into your creative process
  • Your reflections on history, reconstruction, and the world you want to see now

Submit a video link to YouTube or Vimeo URL in the indicated form field.

Note: This material may be used in the “Making of America” film and in media surrounding the exhibition and its broader public engagement.

Artist Rights / Legal Information

  • Artist retains ownership and copyright of their artwork at all times
  • By submitting to this call, artist grants OMG Studios and its exhibition and program partners a non-exclusive, royalty-free permission to reproduce submitted images of the artwork for jury review
  • Use images of the artwork for exhibition promotion, press, publicity, social media, educational materials, and program documentation, etc.
  • Use the artist’s name, likeness, biography, and submitted statements in connection with promotion, interpretation, and educational use
  • Use submitted video materials, and approved images of the artist and artwork in film, promotional, archival, and educational materials related to this project
  • OMG Studios and its partners agree that the artist will be credited whenever the artwork is exhibited publicly or published, wherever reasonably possible and customary
  • Submission to this call constitutes agreement with these terms
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