I saw it First, I want It Worse, Columbia Road, September 2018 –

CUTIVATE presents OVER AND OVER – A Group show at Shipton Street Gallery, Columbia Road, London E2 – We shall be back at Columbia Road, the people, the flower market and all that that involves in April, Over and Over will open on Thursday evening April 18th (2019) and then run over two weekends in April, the show will feature the carefully selected art of something like eight artists, mostly invited artists we already know and regularly work with. New blood is important to us though, Cultivate is about artists and providing an evolving platform for artists, it is a (now nomadic) gallery run by artists for artists and for those who like to explore art. For Over and Over we’d like to include an artist (or maybe two) we don’t know yet, maybe an artist we haven’t heard of yet. or maybe an artist we haven’t featured in a show for quite some time (although if you’re an artist who we do regularly work with do feel free to poke us anyway, we do sometimes need a reminder, shout at us).

Over and Over will run over five days in April, the opening night on Thursday April 18th and the following two weekends 8we say middat until 5pm but I imagine we;ll be open earlier than midday, especially on the Sundays) The area gets very very busy at weekends, the response and the foot fall was great last time we did it. The gallery is part of the gallery owner’s home, he normally only opens it on Sundays so he is being helpful with us while we take over his weekends).

We are going to limit this open call to artists living and/or working in the London area because the show is a short sharp one, this is one for artists who can hop on a bus or a tube to get there and be part of it all, to deliver the art to the hang, to be there on the opening night as well as the take down on the final Sunday. (it isn;t one for artists who are going to spend a fortune on travel and in all honestly I don’t want to get involved with all the hassle of art shipping for a short show like this)

There is no particular theme to the show, we are slightly bias towards painters of a contemporary nature, have a look through photos of previous shows to get a flavour. Previous shows have featured photographers, textile-based artists, installation, print, type, animation, we like to mix things up and rules are for breaking,Cultivate is run by painters though, we are bias towards painters. The gallery isn’t a big one, no room for work over a metre in width, a little more in depth, it will be a busy hang, think punk rock meets formal white cube, a very considered hang but a busy one, lots of art, a riot of colour and attitude, we don’t really like to be polite in terms of our hangs. We might just feature one bigger piece of yours, or maybe several small pieces. they might be grouped together, they might be in different parts of the gallery, or maybe you’ll have a piece on a plinth? Lets see what you have

What do we need from you? A simple e.mails with couple of j.pegs of your work, no more than five, images of pieces you’d like to show, we also require a link to your website (or at least your social media feed where your art is featuredand promoted) so that we can go and explore what you’re about as an artist. Send it to info at cultivategallery dot com, put “Over and Over open call” in the subject line We will get back to you quickly, we won’t wait until the deadline (the early you move the better your chances, first come first served and all that). We do try to answer all submissions to open calls with a little more than just a rudely disrespectful cut ‘n paste response, if the response is a no we do try to explain our thinking and our reasoning, we like to give what we hope will be a constructive helpful response.

COST: There is no charge in terms of a submission, as working artists running a gallery we strongly stand against the practice of galleries or organsations charging artists a fee just to submit work to an open call via simple e.mail (see policy further down) however we are artists all coming together to make a show happen so each of the artists ACTUALLY TAKING PART in the show will be asked to contribute £30 to the costs of running the show, to the cost of the gallery hire and to everything else – we all share the costs together, this isn’t us making a profit out of you, far from it, we’re just all coming together to make something happen in a non-profit making way, we’re all sharing the costs together here. We like to work with out fellow artists, not exploit them and treat them like cash cows. .

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF WORK TO THE OVER AND OVER OPEN CALL IS MIDNIGHT ON MARCH 10th 2019.

Submissions via e,mail to info at cultivategallery dot com and clearly marked Over an over OPEN CALL  in the subject line please –

The policy on open calls:  We like open call shows, the kind that don’t require you to have to pay a fee just to submit an e.mail of course, open calls are something we are very keen on at Cultivate. Of course it was easy to run open call shows regularly when we had a permanent home, our current nomadic lifestyle doesn’t really lend itself to the notion of open calls so well. Do watch this space though, we will have open call gallery shows happening (there have been several physical shows with open call elements already this year), there will be opens calls from time to time and we do appreciate how important both group shows and open calls are, we like open calls and group shows.

And remember, any open call that asks you to pay JUST to submit and e.mail is really something of a cynical con designed to exploit young artists who don’t know the score, these shows are almost certainly going to be a waste of your time and money, they’re enrally badly run by cynical people more interested in your money than your art, don’t be suckered in to paying just to submit an e.mail, follow that link you just passed for lots more thought on the subject

For the sake of clarity: We STRONGLY object to open calls that demand a fee just to submit an e.mail image to a selection process. As artists we strongly vocally object to being charged just to take part in an often dubious on-line selection process and here at Cultivate we will NEVER demand a submission fee from an artist just to send in an e.mail in the hope of maybe being selected.  The practice is cynical, it exploits artists and it is simply wrong.  When we do put on group shows we will sometimes ask artists who are ACTUALLY TAKING PART to contribute a reasonable share to the costs, to help contribute to the rent/space hire expenses and such, only those who are invited to ACTUALLY TAKE PART though, and NEVER the many who don’t make it past the submission process.  We will not work with galleries or artists who are involved in running these cynical pay just to submit open calls and we believe all artists should voice a loud vocal no to anyone who does wish to charge a cynical submission fee just to be part of a selection process. If as an artist you knowingly work with these galleries then we don’t want to work with you.

RESPONSE POLICY:   Policy when we do have an open call is to set a deadline and stick to it. We encourage people to not wait until the last minute and we do like to respond as soon as we can so artists know their submission has reached us. We will say yes or no as soon as we can rather than make people wait. Generally if we haven’t replies with a a yes or no within a week of you submitting work then we haven’t received it.  Some of our open calls can result in hundreds and hundreds of responses, we don’t like to let it all build up and then have an impossible task once the deadline has passed. if you do it early you stand more chance and we get more time to consider what the work submitted as well as explore your websites and such (we always do that, indeed we’ve often found something more suitable on a website or thought about people for alternative shows)

The Marks Made While Making Art….