Come as you are. Make it awkward.
There’s one at every gathering. The guest who asks the wrong question. Wears the wrong thing. Brings someone unexpected. Says what everyone else has been carefully avoiding.
Not Shockboxx invites artists to submit work for Bad Guests, an online group exhibition exploring belonging, bad behavior, and the unwritten rules of gathering.
As the season of obligatory togetherness approaches, we’re making room for the outsiders, the oversharers, the chosen family, and the people who have stopped making themselves smaller to keep everyone comfortable. We’re interested in what happens around the table, beneath the pleasantries, and just outside the invitation list.
Show us domestic tension, delicious excess, social rituals gone sideways, or the quiet rebellion of taking up space. Think awkward portraits, unruly still lifes, surreal dinner parties, family mythology, queer joy, and beautifully uncomfortable encounters. Abstract interpretations are equally welcome: friction, intrusion, imbalance, or something that simply refuses to behave.
Work can be funny, tender, confrontational, unsettling, or several of those things at once. A literal holiday connection is welcome but isn’t required.
Who gets a seat? Who gets left out? And who flips the table?
Deadline: November 14, 2026 · Entry fee: $15.00 per artwork · Exhibition: November 23, 2026 – January 31, 2027
ELIGIBILITY
- Open to emerging and established artists. You do not need prior gallery representation or exhibition experience to apply.
- Artists do not need to be members of Backboxx Artist Society or the South Bay Artist Collective.
- Artists working in painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, collage, mixed media, sculpture, fiber, and other media that can be represented through still images are welcome.
- Figurative, abstract, experimental, and interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged.
RULES
- Submit work that connects to the theme of Bad Guests. Interpretations may be literal, conceptual, or abstract.
- Applications will be accepted October 21 through November 14, 2026.
- Apply through the Not Shockboxx website for $15, or through CaFÉ for $20. Choose one application platform; you do not need to apply through both.
- This is a curated exhibition. Applying does not guarantee selection.
- Submit clear images that accurately represent the artwork. Include the title, medium, dimensions, and a brief explanation of how the work connects to the theme.
- Submit only original work that you created and have the right to exhibit.
- This exhibition is entirely online. Selected artwork will be presented on Artsy.net from November 23, 2026, through January 31, 2027. No physical delivery or shipping to the gallery is required for participation.