Emery Community Arts Center invites artists to submit their work for consideration in our upcoming thematic exhibition, "The Thinking Hand." The forthcoming exhibit will feature a survey of contemporary artworks in multiple media that engage the legacies of craft and the poetics of technique and process as methods of material exploration and storytelling.

The exhibition borrows its title from Juhani Pallasmaa’s book, The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture. Throughout this influential text, Pallasmaa analyzes, “the essence of the hand and its seminal role in the evolution of human skills, intelligence and conceptual capacities,” and proposes that, rather than the mind being the solitary control center of imagination, “….perhaps, it is the hand that really imagines as it exists in the flesh of the world, the reality of space, matter and time, the very physical condition of the imagined object.” Artists are encouraged to submit 2D, 3D or time-based works that engage physical processes, material exploration and/or new approaches to traditional techniques as foundational elements in building form, meaning and/or narrative in the artwork.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Friday, May 24th, 2024

The exhibition will be on view from June 21st - August 9th, 2024 at Emery Community Art Center, University of Maine at Farmington.

How to Apply:
-Use "The Thinking Hand" Submission Form to apply: https://forms.gle/wR2SLruuUCHtcRXB9
-Upload up to 5 images of your artwork, a corresponding Image List, your Artist Statement and Artist Bio.
-Image file formatting requirements: Image files must be approximately 1200 pixels in largest dimension, 72dpi and formatted as JPG, PNG, or PDF.
For video and time-based works, please submit a link to your work on YouTube, Vimeo or other host platform.