126 Artist-Run Gallery and Studios is pleased to announce an open call for emerging visual artists across all mediums, for an upcoming group exhibition “Herd”. This exhibition is open to artists based in Ireland who have graduated with a visual arts degree or have otherwise began their practice within the last three years.
“Herd” explores the current climate of individualism in an increasingly digitised society. It calls into question not only the fading distinction between what we consume from the online sphere and what we experience in the real world, but also the effect of that vanishing line on how we view community, empathy, and togetherness.
This open call invites artists to ask “what does it mean to need?”
As the boundaries in our current world become increasingly uncertain, the ones that border the digital sphere are harder to discern than ever before.
Optimisation, convenience, and the prioritisation of individualistic pursuits exist in the same time in which collectivism and empathy are our most needed assets.
How can we experience solidarity in an age that promotes the solitary? What does it mean to need things and to need each other, to desire, to have hope, to have humanity?
“Herd” will take place from the 9th to the 25th of October 2026.
The deadline for applications is the 6th of September 2026 at 11pm.
Apply here: https://forms.gle/VqCushnWDNqgGzsL8