4th Annual Wild Art Open, International Call for Art

About the Open Call

Submit your art and photography of wild animals. Land, sea, and sky! If the animal is generally considered to be a wild animal, we want to see it! Wild animals, obviously feral animals, and urban wildlife are all welcome. All types of animals are welcome: birds, fish, insects, mammals (land, sea, sky), reptiles, rodents, amphibians, etc. 2D and 3D artwork, printmaking, sculpture, original digital art (no AI), and photography are accepted. Any style and genre as long there is a wild animal in it. All entries must be the original artwork of the submitting artist. We embrace realism as fully as abstraction. We love loose brush strokes as much as highly detailed photographs. We live for finely crafted ceramics as much as mixed media experiments. We. Love. Art. We are looking for 2D and 3D artwork, sculpture, and photography that falls into a variety of art style and genre categories: Abstraction, Portraiture, Surrealism, Realism, Pop Art, Expressionism, Assemblage, and more! Our mission is to promote wildlife and animal art in both non-traditional and traditional forms. We exist to honor, promote, and uplift it. As always, art may include more than just animals. Feel free to incorporate humans, objects, landscapes, shapes, space, or anything else. The work just needs to fit the theme, and the focus needs to be on the animal(s). Be as literal or as creative with the theme as you like. Originality is one of the components we use to score entries.Awards include Best in Show ($350 cash award), Overall Runner Up ($150 cash award), Artivism Award ($50), Overall Honorable Mentions, and Finalists. For more information about our awards, please see the Awards page.Categories for submission include Drawing and Pastels, Mixed Media, Other Media (for digital works, no AI allowed), Painting, Photography, Printmaking, and Sculpture. Category selection helps the judges quickly identify what they are looking at and assess a work appropriately.Artist Entry Requirements: Artwork must be the original art of the submitting artist. Artwork MUST NOT HAVE BEEN INCLUDED in Wild Heart Gallery's shows previously. Artwork entered in this call for art is not required to be for sale; any inquiries about a piece will be directed to the artist. We do not take any commission for this call for art/exhibition. Please submit a quality image of the work for jurying. We can't review blurry, crooked, or unfinished art. Competitions are open to all artists age 18 or older. Entries must follow each individual competition theme. Each piece must be an original. No AI. This call for art is international. Files must be in JPG, GIF, or PNG format. Files may not exceed 5MB. Artwork images must be represented in a professional manner: cropped, no glare, no frames, no watermarks. (Feel free to sign your artwork. In fact, we love it when artists sign their art. It's an excellent marketing tactic.) Not mandatory, but it is preferred that artwork be completed within the last 2 years. Entry fee based on the competition. Entry fees are non-refundable. No exceptions. Policy: No nudity (private parts must be covered), no profanity, no animal cruelty, no gore, and no political artwork will be accepted for jury. Topics of animal conservation and environmental protection are not considered political for the purposes of Wild Heart Gallery.Please Note: This is an art competition. Only the award recipients will be in the online group exhibition on wildheartgallery.com. In some instances, we may opt to include a section for 'Selected Works' in the online group exhibition, at the discretion of our Lead Juror, Sarah Soward. There is no set number of entries that will be included in 'Selected Works.' Thanks to constructive feedback from our artists, we now create a separate page on artcall.org for all works that made it to the Final Round of judging. There is no set number of entries that will be included in the Final Round of judging.Image Requirements: You may submit up to 2 images. For sculpture entries only, you may submit up to 2 additional views per piece. For photographs, please note the make and model of the camera used and whether is film or digital. Accepted File Types: JPG, PNG, GIF. Maximum File Size: 5 MB. Minimum File Size: 500 KB. Minimum Image Width or Height: 1000 px.Jury Process: Artwork for the exhibition will be selected by industry professionals, referred to as jurors. The jurors will vote based on the number of entries, criteria for this event (theme), originality, technique, skill, and quality of work. Jury Selection begins within 7 days after final entry date and ends within 15 days after final entry date. Award recipients are then entered into an online group award exhibition that is published at a date sometime after final entry date. There are several criteria for selection for the award exhibition. These include relevance to the theme, originality, quality of work, technique, and technical skill. The goal is to have a cohesive, high quality virtual art exhibition that embraces various genres of animal and wildlife art. To make the experience enjoyable and worthwhile to artists, visitors, and more, we strive to select and display the artwork that best represents animal and wildlife art today. Please remember that this is a competition; only the best art will be selected for exhibition. Not all art that was entered will be included.Copyright: The artist retains all copyrights to their artwork without exception. Non-exclusive Permissions: By entering this art competition, you are granting Wild Heart Gallery a non-exclusive perpetual license to reproduce images of your artwork on wildheartgallery.com, and to publish the winners and accepted entries on Facebook and Instagram as well as other media outlets. Wild Heart Gallery also has permission to crop or re-size images to fit the needs of wildheartgallery.com and other media outlets. All winning entries will be displayed on wildheartgallery.com. Each awarded image becomes part of the public archival online exhibition catalog for up to one year and possibly longer. Limit of Liability: You will not hold Wild Heart Gallery or any of its affiliates, jurors, or members liable for anything. All entry fees are non-refundable without exception.Other: All dollar amounts listed are in USD. Please follow us on Instagram [@wildheartartgallery], sign up for our mailing list at wildheartgallery.com, and follow us on Facebook.

What is Offered

Cash awards including Best in Show ($350), Overall Runner Up ($150), and Artivism Award ($50), along with Honorable Mentions and Finalist recognition. Award recipients will be included in an online group exhibition on wildheartgallery.com. Selected Works and Final Round entries may also be featured on artcall.org.

Requirements

Artwork must be original, not previously included in Wild Heart Gallery shows. Not required to be for sale. Submit quality JPG, GIF, or PNG images (max 5MB, min 500KB, min 1000px width/height) that are professionally represented (cropped, no glare/frames/watermarks). Open to artists aged 18 or older, international. No AI, nudity, profanity, animal cruelty, gore, or political artwork (conservation topics are acceptable).

How to Apply

Artists can register and apply through the ArtCall site. A tutorial video is available on the page for guidance during the submission process. Submit quality images of original artwork, adhering to theme and image requirements.