Compete Interface: A Call for Works About the Aesthetics of Technology
Opportunity Description
International Deadline: October 12, 2025 – The Cincinnati based non-profit arts organization and gallery, Manifest seeks to examine the aesthetics of technology across time and media. It is a call for artists to submit works that reflect on how the “interface”—whether digital screen, analog tool, or material process—shapes both the appearance and meaning of what we see.
Marshall McLuhan famously observed that “the medium is the message.” The forms and tools through which we create and communicate are never neutral—they carry their own aesthetic signatures, shaping both meaning and perception.
INTERFACE is an exhibit about the aesthetics of technology, with a focus that includes the emerging trends of new media, but also historical ones. As technologies evolve, so do their looks and feels: business-like terminals, 8-bit pixels, psychedelic pulp, the charm and color of Y2K, even the rhythm and timbre of the never-ending streams in our pockets. Each shift reveals not only technological progress, but cultural mood, nostalgia, and projection into the future.
Yet the aesthetics of our technologies are part of a longer story. Rasping marks in wood, a distinctive brushmark or smudge of oil paint, the crackle of vinyl, or the grain of film all remind us that technology—old or new—imprints itself on the art it makes possible. A screen of green descending code can signal both the bleeding edge of tomorrow and a dated vision of yesterday’s future. A brushstroke or etching line can equally assert the presence of the medium itself.
Exhibition Dates: January 23 – February 20, 2026.
ELIGIBILITY
INTERFACE is open to everyone internationally. The only limitation is that entries must represent original works which address the broad theme described above.
Open to all traditional and non-traditional genre and media.
HONORARIA
Each participating exhibitor will receive a $50 honorarium. The honorarium has no strings attached (other than full participation in the relevant exhibit). It is a modest thank-you for collaborating with us as we chart our future.
$9,000 IN GRAND JURY AWARDS
For our current season the Grand Jury Award format will result in the awarding of $1,000 to one work during each of our nine exhibition periods. This expands our support from one to up to nine artists each year, and allocates 80% more funding to recognize the merits of exhibited works… see more.
JURY & CURATOR
This exhibit will be juried by an anonymous several member panel of professional and academic advisors with a broad range of expertise relative to art and design. The jury will then pass along their recommendations to the exhibit curator who will make the final selections from the jury-approved pool.
PUBLICATION
Manifest Press will produce a high quality hard-cover publication documenting each entire season of exhibits, artists, and works shown. This continues Manifest’s commitment to long-term documentation and dissemination of our projects, and the expansion of physical exhibits into a broader geography and time frame, while also bringing all exhibits together under one cover each year to create a better product which will be more valuable to the public, teachers, libraries, and exhibiting artists.
ENTRY FEE
$45 for up to four entries submitted. $5 per each additional entry.
APPLY ONLINE
Visit Manifest Gallery online to Apply.
SALES
Artworks are not required to be for sale in order to be included in our exhibitions. All work, unless indicated as not for sale (NFS), will be available for sale during exhibit. Manifest Gallery will retain a commission of 30% of the sale price on artwork sold during the exhibition.
INSURANCE
Works will be insured while on gallery premises. Insurance covers theft, vandalism, damage caused by gallery patrons or staff.
Visit Manifest Gallery online for complete details and to Apply.
About:
Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization located in East Walnut Hills in Cincinnati, Ohio. We serve as a venue for the display and experience of insightful, thought provoking art and design, and functions as a hub for creative research and innovation at all levels of artistic endeavor.
Manifest Gallery
2727 Woodburn Avenue
East Walnut Hills
Cincinnati, Ohio 45206
