Excited to announce the call out for the galleries penultimate show of 2026 - The journey is a profound metaphor for life, a metaphor that sees our lives as a process of moving through trials, tribulations, triumphs, ups and downs, transitions, and growth towards the ends of our lives here on earth. This process/journey focuses on the importance of our individual experiences, lessons learned, growth, development and personal transformation over mere goal & task attainment, often summarised as "the journey, not the destination".
Exhibition dates: 10th Oct - 8th Nov 2026
This metaphor for life may include:
Growth and Change: Life as a series of steps and stages, similar to a path, road, or sea voyage, where obstacles (storms/hills) teach us resilience.
A certain perspective on Time and our lives: where the future is seen as "ahead" (the destination), while the past is behind us.
The "Circular" Return: The journey often acts as a bridge, allowing individuals to return to their origins, to find themselves and who they were meant to be - before societal, peer and family pressures, constructs and beliefs got in the way - returning to ourselves - but with a deeper transformative understanding.
Common themes and imagery can include: uphill struggles and rewarding triumphs. Turbulence: symbolising navigating uncertainty. The Path/Roads: depicting choices and life paths.
Limitations: While helpful, this metaphor can simplify complex experiences by implying a single, linear direction or a fixed, inevitable destination. However the path is often full of twists, turns and routes that we regret taking.
This metaphor is often prevalent in narratives & stories that represent the "hero's journey" or personal development, where the who we transform into and become is our true "destination".
Submissions Criteria & Information:
Please ensure that you read all of the information below before submitting your work. Any application form/email missing info from the list below will not be considered for the exhibition.
Open to all artists aged 18 and over resident within the UK.
Open to all disciplines including ceramics and sculpture.
All work must be available for sale & No reproductions of originals/giclee prints accepted.
Maximum number of pieces submitted per artist - 3.
Submission to the call out is free/no fee - however if selected to exhibit in the show there will be a £20 per artist exhibition fee payable on selection.
Size restriction - 1.5 metre square
Price restriction: £1500
OTHER INFO
You must be able to deliver work on Sunday 4th October 5pm - 6pm.
I accept postal deliveries of work - this option is available to all exhibiting artists - work must be scheduled to arrive on 2nd Oct. You will receive further info on this if you are selected.
I am able to return unsold work via post - however this option is only available to artists who live outside of a 1.5 hour travelling radius of the gallery.
If selected you will need to deliver & collect your work to/from the gallery prior to the show or send via courier/post. And this includes any unsold work at the end of the show too. All costs incurred re; delivery/post/collection will be covered by the artist.
Artists will be solely responsible for insuring their artwork whilst it is in transit prior to and after the show.
If selected the gallery commission on any sales is 50%.
All artists will be contacted re; selection etc by approx Monday 19th Sept.
All works will need to be framed - unless on a box frame/stretched canvas or board. All pieces ready to hang/No mirror plates.
Due to the high volume of submissions received no feedback will be available at any point throughout the submission/selection process.
SUBMISSION FORM AND IMAGE INFO
A submission form must be completed and emailed to: theoldlockupgallery@gmail.com - you’ll find the form at the foot of this webpage. Along with JPEGS of all work being submitted: please don’t send separate emails.
Submission forms can be downloaded, printed off and handwritten/completed - and a photograph sent as a jpeg if you prefer/find it easier. Please make sure any photographs of the application form are easy to read/decipher.
PDF’s of your work/embedded into a document will not be accepted. Neither will links to your work/images that require downloading to view them.
Good quality JPEG’s of your work: with no blurring and cropped to size - with no background showing must be emailed along with your submission form to the above email address: attached in one email only - please don’t send separately.
File names for your JPEGS will need to be the title of your work or an abbreviation of the title.
Any submissions that don’t meet the above criteria or application process will not be considered.
OPEN for submissions to the call out for the show from March 28th - 13th September and I warmly invite you to step forward and submit your work up until the deadline on 13th Sept at midnight.
It’s advisable that you download the form prior to this as this webpage will be removed at 9pm on the 12th Sept.