Call for artists & poets: Earth Immemorial
Submission deadline: Friday, November 13th, 2026
Exhibition dates: June 24–July 28, 2027
Location: Alvin Gittins Gallery, University of Utah
Curatorial context: The ground beneath the Wasatch Front, stretching south to the Colorado Plateau, is an archive where deep geologic time collides with the physical traces of human movement. Earth Immemorial centers a reciprocal relationship with place, framing materials such as earth, ochre, and minerals as vital co-authors of memory and identity. The exhibition is anchored conceptually by the practice of Guatemalan-American artist Jackie Amézquita, whose interdisciplinary work choreographs biomaterials—from harvested soils and limestone to masa and charcoal—as cosmological agents that awaken ancestral knowledge and connect deep time to lived experience. In particular, her 2022 work Sortilegio III anchors this dialogue: a soil poem, embedded into drywall, composed of letter bricks formed from soil sourced along the U.S.-Mexico border.
By bringing site-gathered matter into dialogue with contemporary language, the exhibition highlights the material agency of the terrain we inhabit. We are seeking both visual artists and writers for this statewide open call:
Visual Artists: Works across sculpture, ceramics, textiles, mixed media, or video that integrate or conceptually celebrate site-sourced regional materials.
Poets & Writers: Text-based contributions exploring place, time, and landscape. Writers can submit standalone writing or take part in a collaborative pairing with an accepted visual artist to generate responsive text that will live as part of the exhibition, such as large-scale wall installations, limited-edition printed matter, or exhibition ephemera.
Submission details and eligibility: For additional details and to apply, visit here (Google login required). Questions about the application process or exhibition scope? Email C-moc at 111thmeridianprojects@gmail.com.