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International OPEN CALL – The Uncomfortable Truth Digital Publication

What’s a truth you’ve witnessed being shunned or becoming a source of compunction for people, institutions, or systems that recognize its exposure would require accountability, change, or the surrender of power?

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. — John 3 verse 19–21, the New International Version

The Uncomfortable Truth is a curated digital art catalog (with print-on-demand copies available) featuring multi-media works of art that confront truths. They confront truths that may be obscured, softened, white-washed, covered, re-written, or erased. They expose personal, spiritual, historical, social, cultural, racial, economic, or political truths. Many of them concern the ways individuals avoid conviction and accountability, as well as the ways institutions and systems preserve power by withholding, distorting, or erasing what is true.

Artists will engage questions of racial division and ongoing segregation; redlining, racial zoning, exclusionary zoning, and the ongoing effects of housing discrimination; the erasure or distortion of history in education; economic inequality and concentrated wealth; political power; inherited prejudice; religious hypocrisy; personal guilt; confession; repentance; revelation; healing; and the cost of refusing silence.

This book is not a platform for personal opinion, outrage, or provocation for its own sake. It is concerned with truths grounded in historical record, lived reality, credible testimony, evidence, or biblical truths—truths that can be honestly examined, named, and confronted rather than simply felt or claimed.

Works selected for publication will also be considered for an accompanying in-person group exhibition in the summer of 2027. A further curated selection will be featured in the exhibition; inclusion in the catalog does not guarantee exhibition participation. Artists invited to exhibit will receive additional details and a separate exhibition agreement.

The catalog will be digital, with physical copies available for purchase through print-on-demand. Artists featured in the catalog will receive a discount on physical copies, with ordering details provided before orders open.

Eligibility

- International artists, emerging or professional.

- Applicants must be 18 years of age or older.

- Artists working in any medium are welcome to submit, provided their work can be represented clearly through images in the publication.

- Submissions must engage thoughtfully with the theme and curatorial framework.

- Submitted work must be original to the applicant. Applicants must have permission to reproduce any third-party material included in their work.-

Submission Requirements

- Submit up to three artworks per application.

- Include the title, medium, dimensions or duration, and year of creation for each work.

- Include a statement of up to 300 words explaining how the submitted work responds to the prompt for The Uncomfortable Truth.

- Provide clear, well-lit, high-resolution images that accurately represent the artwork’s colors, details, and overall appearance.

- Photograph two-dimensional work straight on, without glare, distracting backgrounds, or unintended shadows. Include a full view of each artwork.

- For sculpture, installations, and other three-dimensional work, provide images that clearly communicate the work’s form, scale, and materials.

- Submit digital artworks as clean image exports rather than photographs or screenshots of a screen.

- Do not place watermarks or promotional text over submission images.

- Selected contributors may be asked to provide higher-resolution files and additional information for publication.

Open Call Timeline

January 31, 2027: Submission deadline.

February–March 2027: Submissions reviewed and featured artists selected.

June 2027: Publication released digitally, with physical copies available through print-on-demand.