I’m excited to announce our call for artists submissions for our second show of 2026
‘The Feast’ - Exhibition opens 12th April - 24th May 2026. My shows here at the gallery are autobiographical. I feel that after a lengthy period of fasting/getting by I’m now ready to begin to feast - to feast on life if you like.
Love After Love
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
— Derek Walcott
The word "feast" primarily symbolises communal unity, gratitude, abundance, and the commemoration of significant events in cultural and religious contexts. It is a ritualized social gathering that transcends mere physical nourishment to serve deeper social, spiritual, and psychological functions.
Symbolic Meanings
Communal Unity and Social Cohesion: Feasts bring people together, strengthening bonds among family, friends, and community members. The shared experience of eating a special meal fosters a sense of belonging and collective identity, often serving to mitigate conflicts or reinforce social alliances.
Abundance and Generosity: Characterized by a plentiful supply of food and drink, a feast is a symbol of prosperity, divine blessing, and the host's generosity or social status. This stands in contrast to everyday meals and often follows a period of scarcity or a successful harvest.
Spiritual Significance and Connection to the Divine: Feasts often involve rituals, prayers, and offerings to honour deities, ancestors, or spiritual beliefs. They can symbolise a spiritual connection, renewal, or an opportunity for reflection and the deepening of personal faith.
Rites of Passage: Feasts are frequently used to mark important life stages, such as births, weddings, and funerals, highlighting transitions within an individual's life and their place within the community structure.
Key Contrasting Symbolism
The meaning of a feast is often heightened by its contrast with other concepts:
Feast vs. Famine/Fasting: Feasts are often part of a cycle with fasting periods (such as Ramadan or Lent), where the act of abstinence makes the subsequent feasting more meaningful, emphasizing discipline and purification followed by joy and satiation.
Inclusion vs. Exclusion: While feasts are powerful symbols of inclusion and hospitality, who is invited to the table can also highlight social hierarchies, power dynamics, or exclusion.
In essence, a feast is a rich and complex symbol that reflects fundamental aspects of human social life, including the need for community, the expression of core values, and the human relationship with the physical world and the spiritual realm
I would love to receive an array of work which you as artists feel explores the theme of Feast: pretty much anything that fits seamlessly with this theme: both literally and metaphorically.
Within this call out I am also looking for 4 place settings for a feasting table: a set of plates/dishes/cups to eat, drink & feast from: decorated richly, brightly and boldly: each setting will have been created by one potter/ceramicist. I am also looking for a centre piece for the table too - equally as bold and elaborate.
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 resident within the UK.
Open to all disciplines including ceramics and sculpture.
Open to artists aged 18 and over.
All work must be available for sale
No reproductions/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.
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.
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.
Size restriction - 1.5 metre square
Price restriction: £1500
You must be able to deliver work on Sunday 5th April 5pm - 6.30pm.
I accept postal deliveries of work - this option is available to all exhibiting artists - work must be scheduled to arrive on 2nd April. 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 the gallery commission on any sales is 50%.
All artists will be contacted re; selection etc by approx 15th March.
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.
Any submissions that don’t meet the above criteria or application process will not be considered.
The call out will be OPEN for submissions to the call out for the show from January 13th - 9th March and I warmly invite you to step forward and submit your work up until the deadline of the callout on 5th March at midnight.
It’s advisable that you download the form prior to this as this webpage will be removed at 9pm on the 9th March.