OPEN CALL 2026 – TOXIBILITIES
We invite submissions from artists, makers, craft practitioners, and designers who are active in their respective fields. Entries are welcome in a wide range of artistic media and materials. Submissions may fall within – or at the intersection of – the following disciplines: fine art, design, photography, and crafts (metal, jewellery, ceramics, glass, textiles/fibre, wood, paper), among others.
We are especially interested in works that challenge conventional thinking and behaviour, cross disciplinary boundaries, pose critical questions, and engage with complex contemporary realities and issues.
The group exhibition Toxibilities at Steneby Konsthall explores the complex entanglements between toxicity, disrupted environments, and bodies in a more-than-human world. The title – a portmanteau of “toxi” and “invisibilities–abilities” – is an invitation to reflect on how harmful substances and systems can simultaneously destroy and transform, often operating unnoticed while shaping new realities, relationships, and futures.
Through the lens of art and material-based practices, Toxibilities investigates toxicity as a cross-disciplinary theme, examining its impact on both human and non-human lives – particularly in post-industrial contexts. Key questions explore how toxicity affects time, materials, and ecological connections.
Artists will be selected via open call to respond to themes such as multi-species coexistence, extractivism, environmental justice, waste, and global-local dynamics. Works will include both local and international perspectives, with a focus on site-specific responses to Dalsland’s industrial and mining history, or that otherwise engage with the exhibition’s overarching themes and core concerns.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication of commissioned essays and a symposium featuring invited speakers. Together, these elements aim to open space for dialogue across art, science, ecology and the environmental humanities – revealing how toxicity links bodies, materials, and ecosystems in both destructive and generative ways.
The exhibition main themes include:
• Post-industrial sites and place responsiveness
• Multi-species coexistence in post-industrial and contaminated sites
• How extractivist logics have shaped contemporary understandings of materiality
• Social reparation and ethical questions around environmental humanities
• Re-imagining relationships in a disrupted world
• Waste matter and its afterlives
• Environmental health and toxicity’s effects on living systems
• Material flows of industrial chemicals and their entanglements
• The tension between desire, labour, consumption, and exploitation
• Contact zones between the local and the global, self and other, material and body
• Colonial toxicity
Keywords: post-industrial sites; site specificness, placemaking, waste; toxicity; pollution; extractivism; body; environment; posthumanism; ecology; art; craft; materiality; inter/multi/trans disciplinary research.
Who Can Apply
We welcome submissions from:
• Emerging, mid-career, and established artists. Applicants must be professional practitioners who are active in their respective fields and not enrolled in any educational program at the time of application.
• Individual practitioners, duos, or collectives. We welcome work created by both individuals and groups of artists.
• Artists working in a range of media, including but not limited to crafts (metal, jewellery, ceramics, glass, textiles/fibre, wood, paper), sculpture, photography, video, installation, sound, digital media, etc.
Deadline to apply: Wednesday, December 3, 2025 – by 17:00 (Stockholm time)
Submit your application to: toxibilities2026@gmail.com
How to Apply
Each practitioner can submit either one single piece of work or project, or one series of works (for example a number of objects that together constitute one cohesive body of work).
Please submit the following materials via email: toxibilities2026@gmail.com
Artist Bio (100–200 words)
1. Statement about the submitted work and/or how it relates to the theme (maximum 300
words)
2. Images: Up to 3 images per work (JPEG format, max 2 MB each). Video/audio links are
also accepted.
3. Work Details: Title, medium, dimensions/duration, and year of creation
4. CV/Resume (PDF format, 1–2 pages)
Important Dates
• Notification of selection: end of January 2026
• Exhibition installation: mid-September 2026
• Exhibition opening: end of September 2026
• Exhibition duration: end of September – end of October 2026
What We Offer
• Selected artists will receive an honorarium for their participation in the exhibition, in accordance with the Swedish MU-avtal (agreement on remuneration for participation and exhibition).
• Professional curation and installation support.
• Steneby Konsthall is responsible for marketing the exhibition through social media, press, website, and printed materials.
• Steneby Konsthall will also organize the opening event and public programming.
• Shipping costs.
• There are no application fees.
Selection Process
Exhibition Concept and Curation:
Artists will be selected by Conversation Piece, the artist duo responsible for the exhibition concept and curation. Criteria will include artistic merit, relevance to the theme, and feasibility of presentation within the space.
Conversation Piece, a collaborative practice initiated in 2011 by Beatrice Brovia and Nicolas Cheng, can be intended as a hands-on study on interconnectedness and interdependency. An ongoing reflection on ’making-with’ through conversation, misunderstanding and friction, the practice considers the enfolding boundaries that connect materials, bodies, and technology in the complex timescapes of environmental change.
About Steneby Konsthall
Steneby Konsthall is a contemporary art space located in Dals Långed, Sweden, with a strong focus on material-based practices and interdisciplinary approaches. Situated within a rich cultural and educational environment, the gallery is part of the campus Steneby, Dals Långed, known for its long-standing traditions in craft, design, and fine arts.
The Konsthall hosts exhibitions by emerging and established artists from Sweden and abroad, providing a platform for critical dialogue and experimental work across various media—such as textiles, metal, wood, ceramics, sound, video, and installation.
With a commitment to accessibility, collaboration, and community engagement, Steneby Konsthall offers curated exhibitions, public programming, and opportunities for artistic development. The gallery serves as a dynamic meeting point for practitioners, students, and the public, fostering conversations at the intersection of contemporary art, craft, and society.
For any question please contact: toxibilities2026@gmail.com
This exhibition is produced with funding from the Swedish Arts Council.