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VIVA Alliance is now accepting submissions for consideration for its 4th Annual Exhibition, Plasticity, taking place in September 2026. Please see below for the exhibition concept, submission criteria, and application guidelines.

Exhibition dates: September 9-16, 2026

Exhibition venue: The Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre, Exhibition Hall

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

Artist Call Closing Date: Wednesday June 17, 2026 11:59pm

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Concept Description

Plasticity

VIVA Alliance’s 4th Annual Exhibition, Plasticity, considers how we and the world around us are continuously shaped through processes of formation, instability, and transformation. The exhibition approaches plasticity through the felt and material processes of change, reflecting on the ways materials, bodies, images, memories, environments, systems, and social realities are shaped by pressure, contact, precarity, and uncertainty. It asks how forms reorganize themselves through relation with the world, and examines how such encounters may alter perception and meaning through negotiation, rupture, and exchange.

In a contemporary moment shaped by acceleration, displacement, environmental change, self-optimization, and constant reinvention, Plasticity offers a counterpoint to purely celebratory understandings of flexibility and adaptation, reflecting on how we navigate the pressures of existing in a state of continuous formation.

With this curatorial direction, VIVA Alliance invites artists to reflect on the processes through which unstable systems restructure, regenerate, or respond to forces, pressures, and relations that continually remake our worlds.

Submissions may engage the theme through material experimentation, image-making, installation, sound, video, performance, digital media, interdisciplinary practice, or other forms of contemporary artistic expression.

The Jury

Photo credit: Denis Gutiérrez-Ogrinc
Photo credit: Denis Gutiérrez-Ogrinc

Photo by Denis Gutiérrez-Ogrinc

Hangama Amiri holds an MFA from Yale University where she graduated in 2020 from the Painting and Printmaking Department. She received her BFA from NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is a Canadian Fulbright and Post-Graduate Fellow at Yale University School of Art and Sciences (2015-2016). She is a Kaiserring Stapendiatin of 2023 by Monchehaus Museum in Goslar, Germany. She is also a finalist for the Sobey Art Award (2025). Her recent exhibitions include Parting at the Esker Foundation (2025), Calgary, Alberta; Toronto Biennial: Precarious Joy (2025), Toronto, ON, A Quiet Resistance (2023) at Monchehaus Museum, Goslar, Germany, A Homage to Home (2023) at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present (2023), Sharjah, UAE; Reminiscences (2022) at Union Pacific in London; Henna Night/ Shabe Kheena (2022) at David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO; Mirrors and Faces (2021) at Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto; Wandering Amidst the Colors (2021) at Albertz Benda, New York, NY; Spectators of a New Dawn (2021), Towards Gallery, Toronto; and Bazaar: A Recollection of Home (2020) at T293 Gallery, Rome, Italy.

Amiri works predominantly in textiles to examine notions of home, as well as how gender, social norms, and larger geopolitical conflict impact the daily lives of women, both in Afghanistan and in the diaspora. Continuing to use textiles as the medium, Amiri searches to define, explore, and question these spaces. The figurative tendency in her work is due to her interest in the power of representation, especially of those objects that are ordinary to our everyday life, such as a passport, a vase, or celebrity postcards.

Entry Criteria

 The key criterion for entry in the 4th Annual VIVA Exhibition is thoughtful engagement with the announced exhibition concept. Participating artist are invited to freely interpret the concept in the context of their own perspectives, experience, and art practice.

Additional practical considerations are listed below:


Media

We welcome submissions in visual arts, media arts, and performing arts, including video, sound, digital, projection-based, interactive, and interdisciplinary works.

Size restrictions

There are no formal size restrictions. However, the transportation and installation of the pieces at the exhibition venue should be feasible without extreme measures or damage to the exhibition venue.

Production date

There no restrictions on the production date of submitted works.

Geographic restrictions

We typically accept submissions from artists whose practice is based in BC. However, we welcome applicants from across Canada provided that logistic considerations are addressed in advance.

If the selection panel members find it necessary to view the work in-person during the selection process, we ask that the piece be available for viewing in the greater Vancouver area. In this case, the curators will contact the artist in advance and arrange visit at a mutually convenient time.

Number of works submitted by artists

We generally ask that artists submit no more than 4 works. However, we will consider series or bodies of work that consist of more than 4 interrelated pieces.

Submission Guidelines

What to Include in your submission

1. Artist’s bio and statement

  • Please indicate the full name and number of artists if multiple artists or a collective is involved.

  • Artist statement(s) that describes each artist’s practice and explains how the submitted works relate to the proposed exhibition concept. Please include one sentence regarding whether the artist(s) can participate in artist talks or workshops during the time of the exhibition (Max. 500 words per artist).

  • Artist bios and/or up-to-date CVs outlining each artist’s art education, exhibition history, and other relevant experience. Please include the contact information as well as links to social media profile, website, or online portfolio

2. Images and/or videos of the work(s) you are submitting

Please submit a maximum of 10 high-quality digital images or video stills/links to give us a clear visual idea of your work. Detailed instructions on naming files are provided below. It is a good idea to include pictures taken from different angles and distances, so that the selection panel can consider details as well as the overall scale and presence of your work.

3. Completed submission forms

Please download and complete the Artworks Submission Form. Once completed, include this document in your application form below along with other requirements. Do not forget to add your last name to the existing filename before saving as PDF.

Please submit all files in one zipped folder.

Naming image files and documents

VIVA Alliance has specific requirements for labelling and presenting submissions. Please carefully review and implement the following instructions.

All text documents should be submitted in PDF format.

Naming image files

Please number all image files. The number should be followed by the artist's Last name, the title of the work and the series captured in the image, the medium used, and the work’s dimensions in inches.

Sample: 01_LASTNAME(s)_title of work and series_medium_dimensions in inches.jpg

Naming your artist’s statement or bio

Sample: ArtistStatement_LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME
Sample: ArtistBio_LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME

Naming the submission form

Sample: SubmissionForm_4thVIVA_LASTNAME

Label your zipped folder before submitting as below:

Sample: 4thVIVA_LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME

Please do not:

  • Exceed the specified limit of images, files or word count

  • Exceed 10 MB in the total size of all attachments

  • Use hyperlinks to internet sites for images of works

  • Include plugins, extensions or other executables that need to be downloaded or installed

  • Embed images in the body of your proposal. Images should be added to your zipped folder along with other PDF files

Application Form

About The Selection Process

For the 3rd annual VIVA Exhibition we will consider visual, interactive media and performance art projects appropriate for presentation at The Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Center. A committee will review submissions and select works through consensus in the course of elimination rounds. Selected artists will be contacted by end of July 2026.

This exhibition will run for 8 days in September 2026. The opening receptions, performances, screenings, talks and other community programming are coordinated in conjunction with the exhibition, held either in-person or online.

How do you find out if your work has been selected

VIVA Alliance will send out notifications informing you of the result by end of July 2026.

If the panel finds it necessary to view the work in-person, the curators will contact the artist to arrange a convenient time for a studio visit.

Accessibility considerations

We do not expect all artists to be familiar with accessible practices. However, VIVA prioritizes the accessibility of exhibition 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.

Delivery and return of works

• The accepted works should be delivered to the exhibition venue on September 8, 2026. If this is not possible, the artist is responsible to arrange for an alternative delivery method in advance.

• Works should be picked up from the exhibition venue on September 17, 2026.

• More detailed information will be released closer to the exhibition date.

Sale of artworks

Artworks are not required to be offered for sale in order to be included in the exhibitions.

Once the notice of acceptance is sent out, VIVA will circulate instructions to:

• Indicate whether or not the artist wishes to make their work available for sale

• Set prices for the works they wish to offer for sale

VIVA will retain a commission of 30% on the sale price of artworks sold during the exhibition.

FAQs

  • The submission is open to artists of all ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, communities, and lived experiences. We welcome submissions from the broader artistic community and encourage artists from diverse backgrounds to apply.

  • Our team may select up to 20 artists for the 3rd Annual Exhibition from our submissions according to the curatorial vision for the exhibition.

  • No, at this time, the scope of the Annual VIVA Exhibition is limited to Canadian artists.

  • The selection process is conducted by a committee including the exhibition’s curator, jury members, and VIVA Alliance’s director.

  • Some of the most important criteria for selection are:

    A. Overall artistic merit

    B. Technique and skillful execution

    C. Thematic depth and relevance

    Consideration of other factors concerning feasibility is also important in making a selection. This may include practical considerations such as preparation and installation requirements, exhibition space limitations, accessibility concerns, atypical insurance expenses, and the organization’s financial or human resources.

    VIVA Alliance will not respond to inquiries about the outcome of the selection process. However, the team may reach out to offer constructive feedback when they have specific input that could help improve the proposed project for future opportunities.

  • VIVA Alliance will host an opening reception, produce promotional material for the exhibition, provide installation services, and work carefully with the artists in the professional presentation and documentation of the exhibitions. Please note that VIVA Alliance does not pay for the fabrication of new artwork, framing, or material costs. If your project requires further resources than outlined here, please include all expenses in a budget sheet that entails the costs and required funding.

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

  • The cost of shipping and handling of the artworks is the responsibility of the artist unless otherwise discussed.

  • An expanded exhibition budget requires seeking additional funding, or for the artist to bring their own funds via grants or funding from private donors and sponsors.

A note on documentation

VIVA Alliance documents all aspects of the exhibition for archiving and marketing purposes. Artists are free to document individual elements of the exhibition themselves. This documentation usually consists of digital photographs and/or videography.