Call for Submissions: VIVA Alliance’s 4th Annual Exhibition – Plasticity

Overview

VIVA Alliance is accepting submissions for its 4th Annual Exhibition, Plasticity, taking place at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre in Vancouver. The exhibition considers how we and the world are continuously shaped through processes of formation, instability, and transformation, examining the felt and material processes of change and how forms reorganize through relation with the world.

Theme & Concept

Plasticity reflects on the ways materials, bodies, images, memories, environments, systems, and social realities are shaped by pressure, contact, precarity, and uncertainty. The exhibition offers a counterpoint to purely celebratory understandings of flexibility, examining how we navigate pressures of existing in continuous formation. Artists are invited to engage this theme through material experimentation, image-making, installation, sound, video, performance, digital media, interdisciplinary practice, or other forms.

Key Dates

• Submission deadline: Monday, June 22, 2026, 11:59pm
• Notification: By end of July 2026
• Delivery to venue: September 8, 2026
• Exhibition: September 9–16, 2026
• Pickup from venue: September 17, 2026

Eligibility & Submissions

• Open to artists from all ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, communities, and lived experiences
• Typically based in BC; artists from across Canada welcome if logistics are addressed in advance
• If in-person viewing required during selection, work must be available in greater Vancouver area
• No restrictions on production date of submitted works
• Submit no more than 4 works; series or bodies of work with more than 4 interrelated pieces will be considered

Media & Size

VIVA welcomes submissions in visual arts, media arts, and performing arts, including video, sound, digital, projection-based, interactive, and interdisciplinary works. There are no formal size restrictions; however, transportation and installation should be feasible without extreme measures or damage to the exhibition venue.

Jury & Selection

The jury panel includes Hangama Amiri, Steven Hubert, and Lorilee Wastasecoot. A committee will review submissions and select works through consensus in elimination rounds. The key criterion is thoughtful engagement with the announced exhibition concept. Selected artists will be contacted by end of July 2026.

Awards & Compensation

An artist fee will be paid to all selected artists, with additional compensation for those invited to participate in artist talks.

Sales & Delivery

Artworks are not required to be offered for sale. Once accepted, artists will be asked to indicate whether they wish their work available for sale and set prices. VIVA retains a 30% commission on the sale price of artworks sold during the exhibition. Accepted works should be delivered September 8, 2026 (or alternative delivery arranged in advance). Works should be picked up September 17, 2026.

Accessibility

VIVA prioritizes accessibility for artists and visitors with diverse abilities. The VIVA team is equipped to offer artists the means to enhance the accessibility of the exhibition as appropriate. VIVA does not expect all artists to be familiar with accessible practices.