WE ANSWER TO EACH OTHER
Juried by: Abena Sankofa Imhotep and Dr. Negus Rudison-Imhotep

Request for Submissions

Mainframe Studios is proud to present WE ANSWER TO EACH OTHER, a special exhibition exploring Black art as a living conversation.

Across centuries and across the African diaspora, artists have shaped visual languages that preserve memory, affirm identity, challenge power, and imagine new futures. Created in conversation with one another, these works reveal Black creativity not as a singular tradition but as an evolving constellation of histories, cultures, and ideas.

We Answer to Each Other explores Black artistic practice as an act of self-determination. The exhibition invites artists whose work engages questions of cultural inheritance, community, migration, spirituality, liberation, literature, music, and political imagination. It welcomes works that confront racism, fascism, colonialism, poverty, and war, while insisting that Black life cannot be defined solely through struggle. Joy, intimacy, humor, beauty, ritual, and everyday life are equally central to the story.

This exhibition understands the African diaspora as an ongoing conversation across oceans, generations, and disciplines. From inherited traditions to speculative futures, from local histories to global movements, Black artists continue to create work that expands how we see ourselves and one another.

Artists are invited to submit existing work or create new work in response to this theme. We seek work that is formally ambitious, intellectually rigorous, emotionally resonant, and deeply rooted in the many worlds Black people have made, sustained, and imagined.

All submissions are due by Sunday, September 20th at 11:59 PM (CST), and late submissions will not be accepted.

Submissions are welcome from a wide range of disciplines maintaining a reasonable connection to the theme. There is no entry fee to apply.

Accepted Works will be on display in multiple public gallery spaces at Mainframe Studios during the month of November 2026, with a special reception held during First Friday, November 6th, 2026 5-8pm. All participating artists are encouraged to attend.