Open Call for visual artists to submit works of photography, digital art, video art for participation in the international exhibition “The Unseen within the Gaze” to be held in Athens, Greece.

The official languages of the exhibition are Greek and English. A bilingual commemorative exhibition catalogue-book will be published in digital format, and the exhibition will also be presented online through the ARTgrID platform for one month.

Eligible works. The exhibition accepts works of digital art, photography, and video art.

Conceptual framework. We live in an era in which images multiply incessantly, creating the impression that the world is becoming increasingly visible. Yet the abundance of visual information does not necessarily lead to a deeper understanding of reality. Every act of seeing is simultaneously an act of selection. As something is revealed, something else inevitably remains unseen.

The exhibition “The Unseen within the Gaze” focuses on the invisible mechanisms that shape the way we see. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from phenomenology, cognitive psychology, and visual studies, it approaches vision as a dynamic process formed by attention, memory, experience, social conventions, and technology. The unseen exists not only outside the frame but also within the choices, expectations, and interpretations that organize our perception. It resides in the details we overlook, the absences that are implied, the traces that testify to something never directly shown, and the algorithms that determine which images appear before us and which disappear from our field of vision.

Within this framework, photography is transformed from a medium of documentation into a medium for investigating vision itself. Documentary photography, urban photography, street photography, conceptual and staged photography, digital interventions, and images created with artificial intelligence tools may all function as different approaches to the same question: how is what we perceive as visible constructed, and what remains beyond it?

The exhibition invites artists to explore the concept of the unseen through any photographic practice, engaging with themes such as selective perception, the space beyond the frame, absence, memory, invisible social structures, the relationship between reality and representation, digital mediation, and the new forms of visibility emerging in the age of artificial intelligence.

Submission requirements. Please send an email to artistsartgrid@gmail.com with the subject line “UNSEEN”, including the following:

• (1) Photographs of up to two available works, each submitted as a separate high-resolution JPG image of large size and good quality. Please note: these are not sample works. If selected, you may exhibit only the work(s) you submitted. Works on paper should be photographed without a frame or glass.
• (2) Artwork information, identified by the corresponding file name (e.g. A1.JPG), listed in the following order and separated by commas: Artist’s full name, Title of the work, Materials and technique, Dimensions (in centimeters, Height × Width if the work is intended for printing and exhibition by the artist, or maximum dimensions in pixels if the work has not yet been printed and you would like us to undertake the printing), Year of completion.
• (3) Your contact details: Full name, Email address, Telephone number, Place of residence (Country, or if outside Greece, Country and City).

✨ If you wish to submit Video Art, please either send standard video files via WeTransfer, together with an email containing the remaining required information, or provide a Vimeo or YouTube link where the complete video can be viewed.

Important Notes

– Questions and requests for clarification regarding the submission procedure should be sent exclusively by email to the submission address above. All inquiries will be answered within 24 hours and up to three days before the submission deadline.

– Information regarding the exhibition organization and participation proposal will be provided only to selected artists after the evaluation process. It is not available prior to selection.

– Submissions that do not include all requested materials or do not follow the specified submission format will not be considered.

– If selected, you will receive a reply by email containing complete information regarding the participation procedures. 

– The submission deadline is not intended exclusively for the creation of new works, although new works are welcome. You may also submit existing works that best represent your artistic practice, relate to the exhibition theme, and that you wish to present within the exhibition.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Sunday, August 9, 2026, at 23:59.