Call for Artists: A Deaf Juried Art Exhibition: The Enduring Art of Gentle Pointing Fingers

The Enduring Art of Gentle Pointing Fingers

A Juried Deaf Art Exhibition

A pointing finger can mean very different things depending on who is looking. In many hearing spaces, pointing directly at another person is considered impolite, confrontational, or simply something we are taught not to do. In sign language, however, pointing is foundational. A pointing hand can function as a pronoun, referring naturally to a person without assigning gender. There is nothing inherently rude about it.

And yet, Deaf people are not unaware of how others see us. Sometimes that awareness finds its way into our signing. A direct point becomes smaller, softer, or more discreet. We find ways to gently point. Sometimes we even get creative with it.

The Enduring Art of Gentle Pointing Fingers begins with this small cultural negotiation and extends it into a larger question: What makes a work of art Deaf Art?

Rather than offering a single answer, the exhibition points toward the many ways Deaf Art can emerge through lived experience, advocacy, sign language and expression, community, and culture. It considers how Deaf artists carry their experiences into their work, sometimes directly and sometimes subtly, and how meanings can shift depending on who is looking.

Through this open call for 2D and 3D artwork, we are seeking unique and thought provoking works that expand what can be recognized and celebrated as Deaf Art within the mainstream art world. Rather than defining Deaf Art through one characteristic alone, the exhibition welcomes works that bring together multiple aspects of Deaf experience and expression.

Daniel Katz-Hernandez is coordinating the selection process, with Tabitha Jacques, Noel King, and Katz-Hernandez serving as jurors. Selected works will be exhibited at Anderson Center at Tower View in Red Wing, Minnesota, from February 20 through April 17, 2027.

Eligibility
Submitted artwork must:

Be located in the United States. At this time, we are unable to accommodate international shipping.

Have been created within the last three years.

Measure no more than 48 inches along its longest dimension.

Reflect at least two of the four overlapping characteristics below to be eligible for jury review.

Deaf Lived Experience

The artwork reflects your personal lived experience as a Deaf, late deafened, Hard of Hearing, DeafBlind, or DeafDisabled person. This may include experiences related to your body, communication, identity, access, or your changing relationship with deafness.

Advocacy and Social Issues

The artwork explores issues that affect Deaf people and communities through political, institutional, or social forces. This may include Deaf and disability rights, accessibility, discrimination, advocacy, or barriers within society.

Work in this category should also connect with at least one of the other three characteristics.

Sign Language and Expression

The artwork explores sign language through storytelling, wordplay, gesture, or visual experimentation. This may include creative uses of handshapes, facial expressions, body movement, signs, vocabulary, or other elements of signed language.

Deaf Community and Culture

The artwork reflects your experiences and connections within Deaf communities. This may include Deaf schools, mainstream schools with Deaf programs, Deaf family members, partners, friends, social groups, community events, traditions, or other shared experiences.

About These Criteria

These four characteristics are inspired by Charlotte Baker-Shenk and Dennis Cokely’s 1980 model describing four avenues to membership in the Deaf community: audiological, political, linguistic, and social.

Their model was developed to describe the different and overlapping ways a person may participate in and belong to the Deaf community. For this exhibition, we have adapted those four avenues as a framework for thinking about Deaf Art. They have been reframed here as Deaf Lived Experience, Advocacy and Social Issues, Sign Language and Expression, and Deaf Community and Culture.

The purpose is not to define Deaf Art through a single experience or identity. Instead, the four overlapping characteristics give artists and jurors a way to consider how Deaf experiences, languages, communities, and perspectives can intersect within a work of art.

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