BRIDGEPORT ART CENTER proudly announces a call for artists for The Mystical, The Magical & The Macabre, curated by Marci Rubin, that is exhibited in our distinguished 4th Floor Gallery Sept 19 2025- Nov 7 2025.
ELIGIBILITY: The Mystical, The Magical, & The Macabre exhibition features multimedia artworks conjuring a sense of mystery, awe, and fascination with the darkness. Artists investigate the dark through their chosen media by finding aesthetic beauty in the shadowy depths of our complex existence. While darkness can be associated with feelings of fear, anxiety, or sadness, the darkness also provides a place of comfort, quietude, introspection, romance, and peace. The Mystical, The Magical, & The Macabre, curated by Marci Rubin, showcases artworks that delve into what is lurking and lost in the shadows of the human experience.
Mystical realities that seem inexplicable and are not immediately apparent to the senses or the mind, invite artists to attempt an explanation of the unexplained and travel along alternative spiritual paths. These non-comprehensive or unexplainable events that are sensed and felt are made tangible through the artist’s work by their awareness and comprehension of an extraordinary or otherworldly power. Artistic endeavors exposing a hidden mystical understanding, create visual alchemy while conceivably shining a light in the darkness.
The practice of harnessing supernatural or mystical powers influencing and manipulating events to achieve phenomenal results is magic. Dazzling and delighting their audience, visual artists employ magic to create works of art possessing wonder, surprise, and excitement. Used to explore the subconscious, and tap into a realm that is both familiar and strange, artists like magicians produce illusions and spectacles challenging and manipulating traditional perceptions of reality.
Involving dismal themes of death, decay, and darkness, The Macabre can be quite unsettling and gruesome. Ghastly, gloomy, and grim motifs explored in the artist’s dark depths evoke a visceral response from the viewer, thinning the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead.
Calling all darkness dwellers who incorporate themes of The Mystical, The Magical, and The Macabre into this realm of visual art. Accepting artworks that encompass a wide range of strange and unusual subjects, including, but not limited to:
- Witches Warlocks Wizards
- Goblins Ghosts Ghouls
- Nyctophilia & Nyctophobia
- Skulls Skeletons Spooks
- Spirits Spells Seances
- Ouija Boards & Tarot Cards
- Global holidays, customs, and rituals celebrating and commemorating the deceased such as: Antyeshti; All Souls’ Day; Dia de los Muertos; Halloween; Parinirvana Day; Pitru Paksha; Samhain; Yahrzeit
- Uncanny Weird Wonderful
- Eerie & Enchanted
FEES & DEADLINES: The $27 application fee is non-refundable.
DEADLINE: Mon Aug 18 2025
EXHIBITION DATES: Sept 19 2025- Nov 7 2025
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, Sept 19 2025, 7-10pm
DELIVERY OF ARTWORK: Accepted artists must hand deliver their work to the Bridgeport Art Center on either Thursday Sept 11th 2025; 2-5pm or Saturday Sept 13th , 2025; 11am- 2pm. We do not accept shipped artworks. NO LATE ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED
PICK UP OF ARTWORK: Saturday Nov 8, 2025 11am-2pm
ENTRY GUIDELINES: Entries must be high resolution comparable to 300 dpi at 4″ x 5″ in JPEG or PNG file format. Each artist may submit five (5) works. The photo submitted of your work is the image that will be used for promotional materials if selected; please submit photos with only your work in them. Artworks must match your submission photo. All artwork must be completed, dry, include hanging hardware and be ready for installation. Please no plastic/cardboard poster frames, or static hanging wire. Use flexible picture hanging wire, wall buddies, or d-rings. Sawtooth hangers attached to the frame, not the backing, are acceptable on pieces smaller than 11” x 14”. Works will be inspected and measured at art drop off.
Please include the following information with each photo submitted: Title; Media; Size; Year; Price (artworks do not have to be for sale)
Apply through Slideroom.com or bridgeportart.com We look forward to your submissions and best of luck!
Image: Anthony A Dunn. Before the Twining: The Birds Find Their Way Home,
photo collage, 16×20, 2024
