Submit by May 7th | REMEMBER WHEN, A National Exhibition Juried by Ransome
Remember When
A National Exhibition Juried by Ransome
June 27 – August 9, 2026
Submissions due: May 7, 2026
Call for entries
This exhibit is a national call, open to all U.S. artists 18 years of age or older. Artwork may range from realism to non-representational abstraction; 2D and 3D works in all media are welcome; size restrictions apply.
Description
Remember When: Nostalgia is a powerful sentiment. We can experience it on a personal level, a family level, a cultural level, a spiritual level. We invite you to submit images that speak to this theme. Let’s explore our pasts together as we look back at the times and experiences that shaped us as individuals and as a collective.
Exhibition dates
- Submission Deadline: Thursday, May 7, 2026
- Acceptance Notification: Thursday, May 21, 2026
- Drop-off Deadline (shipments or hand delivery): by Sunday, Jun 14, 2026
- Exhibition Dates: June 27 – August 9, 2026
- Artist Reception: Saturday, June 27, 5 – 7 pm
- Pick-up of artwork: starts August 24
Entry Instructions
- Only original artwork will be considered. NO digital reproductions, digital with hand manipulation, or AI generated images will be considered (example: a giclée of a watercolor). Traditional printmaking such as etching or woodcut is acceptable.
- Submissions are by digital images ONLY through EntryThingy.
Images should be standard color jpeg (min. image width 1,000 pixels) - Size: 2D works may not exceed 40 inches high by 30 inches wide ( 40 x 30 in.); 3D works may not exceed 24 inches high by 14 inches wide in any direction (24 x 14 in.).
- Work must be submitted by the artist, and not previously exhibited at WRCA.
Meet the JUROR: Ransome
My artwork centers on my African-American lineage, which is traced back to sharecroppers of the American South who migrated to Northern cities along the East Coast. My pictorial narratives are personal, yet the symbols I use are universal and interplay with larger social, racial, ancestral, economic, and political histories that inform our nation to this day. The history of my family is the history of black Americans, which is the history of all of North America.
In my works, I often combine acrylic paint with an array of found, made, and purchased papers. The materials I use are conceptual statements on this legacy of an often-overlooked portion of society that made something out of nothing.
Both my representational and abstract works incorporate a variety of symbols, patterns, and marks to create powerful images filled with the rhythmic properties of music that weave throughout my oeuvre. Born in a generation infused by soul and R&B music, I grew up hearing rap music that freely sampled the music of my childhood, mixing and recomposing these songs to create rhythms befitting to hip hop music. In my work, my natural instinct is to paint and collage on the same surface, applying the same spontaneity of hip hop deejays and the resourcefulness of rural quilters, who use what is at hand, assembling, collaging, and creating.
While made of the energy of contemporary culture, my work is also influenced by Abstract Expressionism and draws from the soulfulness of the quilts from the women of Gee’s Bend. For me, there is a visual rhythm to layering these antipodes: found versus purchased objects, figures versus abstract, paint versus paper, busy versus quiet. My work aims to imbue each piece with a lyrical yet authentic resilience borne of limited resources and frugality that speaks to the struggle and hope, pain, joy, and soul of folks in the black community.
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A graduate from Pratt Institute, Ransome served as a tenured professor in the School of Visual Performing Arts at Syracuse University before retiring to pursue his dreams of being a studio artist. Nationally exhibited and collected by museums and private foundations, Ransome received an MFA in Studio Arts from Lesley University and currently resides in the Hudson Valley.
Image: Ransome, The Curse Of Ham, acrylic and collage, 50 x 72 in., 2025
