Announcing Call for Print 2022!

Do you want to work with printmaking? Grafikens Hus is seeking professional artists, illustrators or designers who are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), that would potentially be interested in printing an edition. For its second consecutive year, Grafikens Hus is announcing the project Call for Print.

Grafikens Hus has invited guest curator Daniel Feng to work with this year’s call out. Call for Print aims to facilitate artists, illustra- tors or designers who are BIPOC with the possibility to create a print-based art edition together with a printer under the direction of Grafikens Hus.

“Our ambition is to actively work on the shortcomings within the field of printmaking by lifting BIPOC artists, as well as making printmaking more accessible”, says guest curator Daniel Feng.

Why is Grafikens Hus implementing Call for print?
Instead of artists having to approach the walls of the institutions, we are seeking to actively reach out to artists in order to create a greater network in different communities. Call for Print, we hope, will open up the walls placed by institutions, which often seem to stay within the same circles, and reproduce the same knowledge. We at Grafikens Hus want to change our own relationship to representation in the long term and aim to reconsider our own place within the production of knowledge and representation.

Printmaking is a form of artistic expression with a history of reproduction that has facilitated the spread of ideas and thoughts as well as making art more accessible to the larger population. Call for Print is an open call that will take place annually as a way to activate printmaking as a method for change in society and on the art scene. Through this project we hope to correct the deficiencies of representation within the printmaking landscape, by calling out to underrepresented and often neglected communities.

How to apply
Call for Print gives you as a professional artist, illustrator, or designer in Sweden an opportunity to create a work of art in an edition with a printer. You do not need to have prior knowledge or experience in printmaking. Your application must include a brief description of your creative practice and idea(s) for a printable art edition using text and/or images (maximum 1⁄2 A4- page, 2000 characters – no spaces). Attach up to 5 images of earlier works (PDF/Jpeg, the document should not weigh more than 10 MB) and include a link to your website, Instagram or equivalent.

The only criteria for applying is that you are a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) professional artist, illustrator or designer living in Sweden. Your artistic work doesn’t need to regard your experiences of being BIPOC, unless of course this is something you’re working with.

The production will start in December. All the production costs of the work will be covered. The fee for participating in the project is invoiced at SEK 7,500 excluding VAT, which is paid to the person selected by the jury who receives the assignment when the edition is printed, signed, and approved by Grafikens Hus. However, the project does not cover travel and accommodation costs. It is possible to conduct the project in other places than Södertälje. The art edition will become part of Grafikens Hus’ collection and be available for purchase in our art shop, where compensation for sold works is paid once a year.

To apply, please send an application to our email at callforprint@grafikenshus.se, at latest November 18th.

This is how we assess the application The selection process is based on the submitted material in the application. The applications will be assessed by a jury appointed for the call. The jury consists of: Johnny Chang, graphic designer and illustrator; and Mmabatho Thobejane, curator and producer for MDT.

Do you have questions? Please contact us via e-mail if you have questions: callforprint@grafikenshus.se.