How To Get Selected: What We Actually Look For When Reviewing Open Call Submissions

How To Get Selected: What We Actually Look For When Reviewing Open Call Submissions

Thousands of guides tell you how to apply to an open call for artists. Almost none are written by the people doing the selecting.

This one is. Between Streeters Gallery and our sister gallery The Holy Art, our team has reviewed tens of thousands of submissions across nine cities and over 25,000 exhibited artists. We know exactly why a submission gets a yes, and exactly why strong work sometimes gets passed over.

Here is the honest, inside view.

The first three seconds decide more than you think

A reviewer looking at hundreds of submissions forms an impression of each one almost instantly. That impression comes from the image before it comes from the art.

If the photo is dark, tilted, cluttered or blurry, the work never gets a fair reading. This is the single biggest reason good artists get rejected. Not taste. Not politics. Photography.

Shoot in natural daylight, straight on, against a clean wall, no filters. If the photo looks like the actual piece, you have already beaten half the applicant pool.

We look for a voice, not a style

Artists often ask what style we want. Wrong question. We have exhibited hyperrealism next to abstraction next to folklore photography next to biodegradable material sculpture. There is no house style at Streeters and there never will be.

What we look for is a voice: the sense that one specific person made this and meant it. Three works that clearly belong to the same artist beat five works that could have been made by five different people. When your submission feels coherent, the reviewer can imagine it on the wall. When it feels scattered, they cannot.

Pick the three to five pieces that feel most like you. Leave out everything else, even if it is technically impressive.

Honest beats impressive in the written part

The description field scares people, so they reach for art school language. "My practice interrogates liminal spaces through a multidisciplinary lens." We read fifty of those a day and they all blur together.

What stops us is plain honesty. "I paint the faces people make on night buses when they think nobody is watching." One sentence like that does more than three paragraphs of jargon, because it tells us what we are looking at and why you made it.

Write it the way you would say it to a friend. Two or three sentences. Done.

What does not matter (genuinely)

No CV. No degree. No past exhibitions. No follower count. We do not ask for any of it and we do not go looking for it.

This is not a marketing line. It is how the model works. The Holy Art has exhibited artists from over 100 countries, many on their very first submission, precisely because selection runs on the work alone. Some of the strongest pieces we have ever hung came from people who had never shown anywhere.

If you have been waiting to build a resume before applying, you have the order backwards. The exhibition is how the resume starts.

What gets an instant no

A few things end a submission quickly, and all of them are avoidable.

Work that does not match the images submitted. If you are selected, the piece that arrives must be the piece we saw. Screenshots of a screen instead of exported files for digital work. Heavily filtered or AI enhanced photos that misrepresent the actual piece. Ignoring the stated requirements on sizes, formats or file quality. Submitting twenty images when the call asks for five.

None of these are about talent. They are about care, and care is the thing a gallery needs to trust before hanging your work in a room with its name on the door.

Fit is a factor, and rejection is not a verdict

Sometimes strong work gets a no because it does not fit that particular show. A quiet, delicate series can get lost in a high energy group exhibition. A massive piece may not suit a space with limited wall runs.

This is why we tell artists to reapply. The Streeters open call runs across multiple shows and cities: London on November 6 to 8, New York in Tribeca on November 20 to 23, Paris, plus the Times Square showcase and the London billboard displays in Kings Cross and Notting Hill. The Holy Art runs rolling open calls across nine cities. A no for one show is regularly a yes for the next.

A checklist from the reviewing side

Before you press submit, run through this.

Photos taken in daylight, straight on, clean background, no filters. Three to five works that clearly share one voice. A description in plain language you would actually say out loud. Files at full resolution, clearly named with your name and the title. Every stated requirement followed exactly. Submitted early, because capacity based shows close when they fill, not when the poster says.

That is the whole game. Not connections, not credentials. Care, coherence and a clear voice.

Frequently asked questions

What do galleries look for in open call submissions? Clear, accurate photographs, a coherent selection of three to five works with a recognisable voice, and an honest plain language description. At Streeters Gallery and The Holy Art, CVs, degrees and past exhibitions are not considered.

How many works should I submit to an open call? Three to five of your strongest, most consistent pieces. Quality and coherence beat quantity every time.

Why was my work rejected from an open call? The most common reasons are photography that undersells the work, an incoherent selection, or a mismatch with that specific show. Rejection from one exhibition is not a judgment on your work. Reapply for the next show.

Do I need an artist statement for an open call? Only a short description. Two or three honest sentences about what you make and why outperform formal artist statements.

Can beginners get selected at open calls? Yes. Both Streeters Gallery and The Holy Art select first time exhibitors regularly, because selection is based entirely on the submitted work.

Submit with the inside knowledge

You now know exactly what the reviewers on the other side are looking for. Use it.

Streeters Gallery: London (November 6 to 8), New York Tribeca (November 20 to 23), Paris, Times Square and London billboards. Free to apply. All mediums. Zero commission.

The Holy Art: rolling open calls across nine cities worldwide. Free to submit.

The reviewers are waiting. Give them something with a voice.