The Shape Open is our annual exhibition of artwork by disabled and non-disabled artists created in response to a disability-centred theme. Held in high-profile, artist-led spaces such as Bow Arts' Nunnery Gallery, Portobello Gallery, Yinka Shonibare CBE's Guest Projects and our own pop-up galleries, The Open provides a space where disabled and non-disabled artists can discuss and exchange views and ideas about issues and topics which are often sidelined within artistic debate.Any artist can apply to our yearly call for submissions and exhibitors are selected by a panel of arts industry judges, including Shape Open patron Yinka Shonibare CBE.
The Shape Open provides a fantastic platform for disabled artists to show their work. Such exhibitions offer great opportunities for artists to be discovered by institutions and larger audiences.
- Yinka Shonibare CBE
The Shape Open creates an opportunity for emerging and mid-career artists to raise their profile while allowing established artists taking part to show their work alongside new and fresh perspectives that they may not ordinarily encounter.To stay up-to-date with news, opportunities and events relating to the Shape Open, including the annual call for submissions, sign up to our monthly e-newsletter at the bottom of this page. For any other enquiries about the Open, please email [email protected] or contact 0207 424 7330.
The Shape Open 2019 exhibition, In Circles, asked whether progress for disabled artists is being made. Is our work counterproductive? Can we really shift institutional thinking? Read more
A retrospective of the past six years of the Shape Open, this exhibition re-examined a selection of key works, considering the history of disability policy and life for disabled people in a welfare state. Read more
Shape Open 2018: 'Collective Influence', what influences you? What power does influence have to provoke change, and what capacity does it have to affect society? Read more
Shape Open 2017: 'Power: The Politics of Disability', how do we creatively challenge the language of power, politics and disability? To what extent do we need art to be a form of political protest? Read more
Shape Open 2016: ‘My Life’, artists were asked to express their ideas, drawing on memory, nostalgia and processes of internal reflection. Read more
Shape Open 2014: '[In]visible', how does impairment affect our visibility within society? Do medical diagnoses, labels and changing definitions help or hinder our understanding of an individual’s lived experience? Read more
Shape Open 2013/14: 'Disability Re-assessed', framed against the backdrop of the 2012 Paralympics celebrations and cultural Olympiad commissioning. Read more
Shape Open 2012/13: 'Disability', our very first Shape Open welcomes work from both disabled and non-disabled artists. With work from abstract to the figurative, the personal to the political. Read more