Call for Submissions: Art Circuit 2026

Four Exhibition Opportunities

Art Circuit is back for 2026!

Submission Deadline: August 16, 2025
Event Date: Friday, October 2, 2026 | 7:00 – 10:00pm
artcircuit.ca

This unique event transforms Hamilton into a lively, mobile gallery experience—connecting art lovers, collectors, and creatives across the city on a looping bus tour of gallery openings and exhibitions. Guests hop on and off to explore each venue, meet artists, and engage with the vibrant local art scene.

Art Circuit is now accepting submissions from emerging and established artists working in all mediums to be part of this exciting evening of art and community.

Why Apply?

• Show your work in one of Hamilton’s participating galleries during a high-profile citywide event
• Connect directly with collectors, curators, and fellow artists
• Gain valuable exposure and build lasting relationships within the creative community
• Be part of an event designed to celebrate, uplift, and sell local art

Criteria

• Artists working in any visual medium (painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media, digital, etc.)
• Work that is professional, original, and suitable for a public gallery setting
• Artists based in Hamilton or beyond who want to connect with the Hamilton art community

The Focus

Art Circuit has two core goals:

• Building community through art and connection
• Supporting artists by providing real opportunities for visibility and sales

Ready to Join the Circuit?

Submit your work between June 8 and August 16, 2026 to be considered. Spaces are limited and fill quickly—don’t miss your chance to be part of this unforgettable city-wide celebration of art.

Four unique opportunities to show your work at Art Circuit 2026, each with its own curatorial theme and atmosphere.

Artists are invited to review the individual submission guidelines for each space and apply to the exhibition that best aligns with their work. Whether your style is bold and contemporary, thoughtful and experimental, or rooted in traditional techniques—there’s a gallery that’s the right fit for you.

Take the time to explore each opportunity and submit your work to the space that best reflects your artistic voice. Feel free to apply for one or more shows (each show would require a separate submission and payment).

Creatively Disruptive at The Revival Art Store

1165 Cannon Street East, Hamilton, ON
The Revival Art Store

We want artwork that is not perfect or traditionally “pretty.” This can be interpreted visually, thematically, or through a message.

Break rules, step out of the normal. Don’t colour inside the lines. Use unusual materials or techniques. Touch on current or historical issues. Provoke thought and conversation (either positively or negatively). Shock value accepted, but not mandatory.

Push the envelope and be brave. We want work that makes people stop and stare, that lingers in the mind, and that challenges the viewer’s perception.

Style references might be: Dadaism, neo-expressionism, street art, pop-art, surrealism, or your own unique style.

Submit here

The Cost of Staying Human – The State of the World at Good Nerd Gallery

138 James Street North, Hamilton, ON
@goodnerdhouse

“The Cost of Staying Human —The State of the World”

We are living through an age of endless consumption, constant distraction, political unrest, environmental collapse, and algorithm-driven realities. In a world that increasingly rewards outrage, speed, and indifference, what is the cost of remaining human? This exhibition seeks work that confronts the fractures, contradictions, and emotional weight of contemporary life. We invite artists to explore themes of resistance, grief, connection, alienation, empathy, survival, and hope. Whether personal or political, intimate or confrontational, we are interested in art that questions what we are becoming and what we risk losing along the way.

Show us the cracks. Show us the fight. Show us what remains.

Submit here

Reflections at the Back Alley Gallery

341 Herkimer Street, Hamilton, ON
backalleygallery.ca

The Back Alley Gallery invites artists of all disciplines to respond to the theme of Reflections—a word that holds multitudes. A reflection is physical: light caught in glass, shadow thrown across a wall, a still pool of water, a mirror catching an unexpected angle. It is also deeply personal: the quiet act of looking inward, of examining memory, identity and the self.

This exhibition welcomes work that operates in any register of that word. We are drawn to art that plays with the behaviour of light and shadows, to glasswork that refracts and transforms, to sculpture that commands space—but we are equally moved by work that turns the gaze inward, that contemplates the self and examines one’s thoughts. Open to artists working in all mediums; including but not limited to: painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, glass, collage, textiles, mixed media, and installation. We seek art that makes a viewer pause, lean in, and see differently.

If your work asks what it means to reflect—in any sense—we want to see it.

Submit here

It’s a Sign at The Corner Studio

435 York Boulevard, Hamilton, ON
@thecornerstudio_hamont

It’s a Sign is an exhibition of handmade signs. Signs of real or made up places, instructions, and advertisements. Signs are all around us, telling us which direction to go, when our favourite stores open, when our favourite band plays at our favourite pub.

Sometimes you even see a sign and think “this must be a sign!”

Exhibiting artists are to make a sign or include a sign of any kind within their work.

Submit here

Art Circuit
Instagram | Website
artcircuithamilton@gmail.com