Call for Art: Body Sovereignty
Call for Art: Body Sovereignty
Curator: Danni O’Brien
Application Deadline: Saturday, April 18, 2026
The body has always been contested territory. Legislated, pathologized, fetishized, disciplined — the body and its desires have rarely been left in peace, let alone in the control of the people who inhabit them.
Body Sovereignty is an exhibition about who owns our body, its expression and its sexuality.
ARC Gallery invites artists working across all media to submit work that claims for itself a radical ownership over sexuality, desire, and bodily identity. We are interested in art that refuses to be tamed — work that finds the erotic in the accidental, the absurd, the domestic, and the discarded. Work that borrows the visual language of instruction and mechanism only to subvert it. Work that is bold in its irreverence, polymorphic in its affect, and unafraid to blur lines between innocence and perversion, function and fantasy, the handmade and the found.
We are drawn to art that treats the body not as subject matter but as site of survival — art assembled from cultural cast-offs, scavenged and repurposed into something fantastical and alive. Art that is cheeky and meditative in equal measure. That takes months to resolve what was gathered intuitively. That arrives slowly at something unsettling and true.
Body Sovereignty is not about shock. It is about depth of feeling — about understanding, as Audre Lorde wrote, that the erotic is a measure of our most expansive sense of self.
We Welcome Work That:
Claims ownership over desire, sexuality, and gender on one’s own terms
Plays at the intersection of the bodily, the mechanical, and the domestic
Transforms everyday materials into something visceral and alive
Explores queer identity, conspicuous consumption, and bodily survival through a fantastical or absurdist lens
Engages the erotic through abstraction, humor, tenderness, or the uncanny — not necessarily through explicit imagery
Refuses easy categorization and sits comfortably at the edge of innocence and perversion, play and politics
Media
All media welcome, including sculpture, assemblage, ceramics, collage, painting, drawing, fiber arts, printmaking, papermaking, video, and installation. We are especially excited by hybrid works and interdisciplinary practices.
Deadline for Submission of Applications: Saturday, April 18 2026 at 11:59pm CST
Notification of Acceptance: By email on May 6, 2026
Delivery of work to ARC: Thursday & Friday May 28 & May 29, 2026, 2-6pm; Saturday, May 30, 12-4pm
Pick-Up Work at Gallery: Saturday, June 27, 2026, 2:30-4pm
Shipped Work Return Date: First two weeks of July (determined by the delivery method)
*Pre-Paid FedEx or UPS return label is required
*Do not use the U.S. Postal Service
About the Curator: Danni O’Brien
Danni O’Brien (she/they) is a queer, interdisciplinary artist based outside Baltimore, MD. Through scavenging and collecting, O’Brien builds enigmatic sculptures and reliefs from found objects, vintage patent diagrams, handmade paper pulp, ceramics, and the cast-offs of consumer culture. Her work grapples with queer identity, dystopian survival, and conspicuous consumption — playful and absurd on the surface, deeply meditative underneath. O’Brien has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, Asya Geisberg Gallery, Hamiltonian Gallery, and the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, and has held residencies with The Wassaic Project, Baltimore Clayworks, the Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency, Byrdcliffe Colony, and Stove Works, among others. She is the recipient of Individual Artist Grants from the Belle Foundation for Cultural Development and the Maryland State Arts Council.
Visit Dani @ www.danielleobrienart.com
Opening Reception, Friday, June 5th, 5:00-8:00pm
Exhibition dates: June 5-26, 2026
Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pm
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
Submission Instructions
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STEP 1: Upload your images
• Decide which images you will submit. Ideally, the art should have been completed in the last 5 years.
• Label each image with: Last name, Item # of the image, Title of work, Medium, size and date. Separate with a dash. Example: daVinci-1-Mona Lisa-30x21x2”-1503. Number the images consecutively.
• Images must be submitted in JPG /JPEG format
• Limit the number of images to the amount you chose to pay for. ARC will only review the number of images you pay for. (standard fee is $40 for 3 images. $10 for each additional image. Students pay $25 for 3 images, with $10 for each additional)
• If you are a student, also upload a photo of your student ID along with your images.
• Please note that images of accepted work will become the property of ARC Gallery and may be used for publicity.
• Upload your images. They will go to a Dropbox file for juror’s review.
• When you are finished uploading files, go to the top of the screen and close this window. It will take you back to the original application form
• Complete the 1st dropdown box: Click on either “standard” or “student” application
• Complete the 2nd dropdown box: Highlight the number of images you are submitting
• Make sure there is a “1” in the Quantity box. (If you click another # it will multiply your fee by that #)
STEP 2: Fill out the application
• Now, click on “Pay Fees”. This will take you to a page where you can enter your application information.
• Check the small box at the top indicating which show you are applying to. (this is easy to miss, but your application will not go forward if you don’t check it).
• Complete: name, email, phone, website (if you have one) and address (be sure to enter your country or it won’t go forward)
• Enter you artist statement. Write a brief statement addressing your work and/or your images. Please limit your statement to under 125 words. Do not include your name (jury is anonymous) and do not try to make it a resume—ie don’t include education details or a history of past shows.
• Click on the box” “I uploaded my images”
• Now enter the label info for each of your images. Each should include: (a) item number; (b) title, (c) dimensions: height x width x depth, (d) mediums / materials, (e) date produced, and (f) price. Make sure you itemize your list to correlate to the #s on the images you submitted.
• Click on the black “pay fees” button at the bottom.
STEP 3: Pay fees
• Click: “sign in”
• Click either: “Apple pay” or “credit card”
• Enter requested information
• Click “continue”
• Review information and click “Purchase”
• Your application will not go through until you have clicked purchase.
• If you have any payment issues, send an email message to the gallery: info@arcgallery.org. We will sort it out for you. (Also we can refund payments that have gone awry, so don’t panic!).
• An email receipt will be sent by ARC Gallery after application and payment is completed
• Submissions will not be reviewed until payments are received
Questions?
Please feel free to email the gallery with any questions. We are here to help. Our email address is: info@arcgallery.org.
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Eligibility
Original works created within the last 5 years. All mediums and materials will be considered in addition to video and performance based arts. No projections or media installations will be accepted for this show due to space limitations. Open to all artists, national and international.
Exhibition and Delivery Requirements
Work must arrive by scheduled dates or will not be hung.
A label must be attached to the back/bottom of each work with name, title, medium and price.
Work must be presented in a manner appropriate to the artwork and be equipped for presentation. If work isn’t shown in the traditional gallery sense; it should still able to be displayed in a professional manner by gallery installers per artist specifications.
Absolutely no Peanuts in shipping boxes!!!!
Work must be able to remain in exhibition through exhibition dates. No work can be retrieved early.
If work is shipped, use either UPS or FedEX and include a prepaid return shipping label with your package.
No work which was not originally selected by juror will be hung.
Sales
Works will be for sale unless noted as NFS (not for sale) on the entry form. ARC will act as a liaison for sales of the artists' work. However, any work sold and paid for via Paypal will have the small fee deducted from the sale amount. ARC will deduct a 20% commission from the selling price of the work in group shows, with the artist retaining 80% after any Paypal fees if applicable. Please price accordingly.
Insurance
ARC exercises professional care when handling submitted work. We do not assume responsibility or liability including but not limited to accidents, damaged work, or forces of nature. Artists who feel their work is fragile should consider carrying their own personal property insurance. Again, the gallery will not assume liability for damage.
Accepted Work: Shipping and Delivery Return
With the exception of hand-delivered and picked-up work, all work shipped to and from the gallery must be paid ahead-of-time by the artist.
ARC will pack and make ready for return all shipped work and schedule the pickup. However, ARC will not make any payment or handle work that has to be dropped off for return. Please enclose A PRE-PAID return shipping label with the work. This should be, and can easily be, obtained online at UPS or FEDEX websites at the time work is being shipped to gallery for exhibition.
Upon close of show, ARC will alert the chosen shipper that the work is ready for pick-up. Any checks for return shipping made out to ARC will not be accepted nor will handwritten Fed Ex shipment labels. All acceptable pre-paid labels will need a barcode for scanning purposes.
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Please feel free to contact the gallery via email (info@ARCgallery.org) should you have any questions re: the exhibition, submitting work, or the prospectus. Email messages are checked daily. If you contact the gallery by phone, please call only during hours when the gallery is open.
ARC Gallery and Educational Foundation
Gallery Hours: Open Thurs & Fri - 2-6pm, Sat & Sun - 12-4pm; Closed Mon-Wed.
1463 W. Chicago Ave 1st floor
Chicago, Illinois 60642
312 877-5760
Before you begin, read our Submission Instructions (PDF) in the Call for Entry you are responding to. Click here to browse Calls for Entry.
Please Note: ARC takes a 20% commission fee on works sold. So please price your work accordingly
STEP 1: Upload your images
Decide which images you will submit. Ideally, the art should have been completed in the last 5 years.
Label each image with: Last name, Item # of the image, Title of work, Medium, size and date. Separate with a dash. Example: daVinci-1-Mona Lisa-30x21x2”-1503. Number the images consecutively.
Images must be submitted in JPG /JPEG format
Limit the number of images to the amount you chose to pay for. ARC will only review the number of images you pay for. (standard fee is $40 for 3 images. $10 for each additional image. Students pay $25 for 3 images, with $10 for each additional)
If you are a student, also upload a photo of your student ID along with your images.
Please note that images of accepted work will become the property of ARC Gallery and may be used for publicity.
Upload your images. They will go to a Dropbox file for juror’s review.
When you are finished uploading files, go to the top of the screen and close this window. It will take you back to the original application form
Complete the 1st dropdown box: Click on either “standard” or “student” application
Complete the 2nd dropdown box: Highlight the number of images you are submitting
Make sure there is a “1” in the Quantity box. (If you click another # it will multiply your fee by that #)
STEP 2: Fill out the application
Now, click on “Pay Fees”. This will take you to a page where you can enter your application information.
Check the small box at the top indicating which show you are applying to. (this is easy to miss, but your application will not go forward if you don’t check it).
Complete: name, email, phone, website (if you have one) and address (be sure to enter your country or it won’t go forward)
Enter you artist statement. Write a brief statement addressing your work and/or your images. Please limit your statement to under 125 words. Do not include your name (jury is anonymous) and do not try to make it a resume—ie don’t include education details or a history of past shows.
Click on the box” “I uploaded my images”
Now enter the label info for each of your images. Each should include: (a) item number; (b) title, (c) dimensions: height x width x depth, (d) mediums / materials, (e) date produced, and (f) price. Make sure you itemize your list to correlate to the #s on the images you submitted.
Click on the black “pay fees” button at the bottom.
STEP 3: Pay fees
Click: “sign in”
Click either: “Apple pay” or “credit card”
Enter requested information
Click “continue”
Review information and click “Purchase”
Your application will not go through until you have clicked purchase.
If you have any payment issues, send an email message to the gallery: info@arcgallery.org. We will sort it out for you. (Also we can refund payments that have gone awry, so don’t panic!).
An email receipt will be sent by ARC Gallery after application and payment is completed
Submissions will not be reviewed until payments are received
Remember: ARC takes a 20% commission fee on works sold. So please price your work accordingly
QUESTIONS: Please feel free to email the gallery with any questions. We are here to help. Our email address is: info@arcgallery.org.
Please note that images of accepted work will become the property of ARC Gallery and may be used for publicity.
