Painting & Drawing Open Calls
Do you work in painting or drawing? Are you looking for opportunities more tailored to your medium? Check out our selection of visual arts-focused open calls coming up around the globe.
Whether it’s a prize, residency, or fellowship, the right opportunity for accelerating your practice awaits you.
Maison Perrier — Art Prize
This international competition is open to emerging artists from around the world. The prize aims to support the future of creativity by inviting major artist Amoako Boafo, to mentor the selected emerging participant. Candidates must be engaged in the creation of original visual works (in particular through painting or drawing) and hold a certified diploma or degree in fine arts, applied arts or graphic design.
Reward: €40,000, 6-week artist residency in Accra (Ghana), a mentorship and more.
Conru Art Foundation — The Seattle Prize
The Seattle Prize gives artists the space and support to dedicate up to a full year to meaningful narrative figurative painting. The program is open to all artists, from emerging painters ready to break through, to established artists pursuing major works. Fellows work from the Conru Art Foundation’s Pioneer Square studio and are expected to be present in Seattle for the full program year.
Reward: $50K–$80K Stipend, private studio and more.
Phillip Allen, Deep Waiting, 2026. Images: Kerlin Gallery, Dublin
FiKVA Foundation— International Award for Painters
The International FiKVA Award for painters is an online competition, open to all artists aged 18 or older, worldwide. The award accepts applications in all styles of representational painting – modern and classical realism, imaginative realism, hyperrealism, photorealism, luminism, surrealism, etc. Submitted works must produced between 2024 and 2026.
Reward: $3,500 cash prize and more.
Rothko Museum — Valdis Bušs 2026: International Painting Plein Air
The Plein Air takes place in Viļaka, a picturesque town in eastern Latvia, to commemorate Valdis Bušs, a renowned Latvian landscapist. The plein air experience enables artists to draw inspiration from Viļaka and its rich natural and cultural heritage, meet the local community and explore the oeuvre of Valdis Bušs. At the end of each plein air, the artists and leave their new paintings in the plein-air collection, a work in progress for the emergent Valdis Bušs Art Centre.
Rewards: National travel costs, accommodation, studio, exhibition, materials and more.
Prisma Art Prize— Open Call 2027
Prisma Art Prize is an international art competition dedicated to promoting emerging painters and visual artists. Finalist works are eligible for quarterly prizes, for the annual exhibition, catalog, and partner prizes.
Rewards: €2000 cash prizes annually and exhibition at Contemporary Cluster, Rome.
Rothko Museum— Mark Rothko 2026 International Painting Symposium
Held annually in Rothko’s birth month, the Mark Rothko International Painting Symposium honours the artist’s legacy in the city of his childhood. Now well into its third decade, this vibrant creative forum has become a cultural landmark, placing Daugavpils firmly on the global art map as a place of creative energy and exchange.
Rewards: Accommodation, catering, studio, national travel and more.
Aileen Murphy, We must go under the wallpaper, 2026. Images courtesy of the artist and Deborah Schamoni. Photos: Dirk Tacke & Stefan Korte.
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