Call Description

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI MUSEUM OF ART, NATIONAL JURIED PAINTING EXHIBITION, 2025
September 4-26, 2025

The University of Southern Mississippi Museum of Art is pleased to announce the 2025 National Juried Painting Exhibition. Artists are invited to submit entries of original works created within the past five years.

AWARDS: 1st $500, 2nd $300, 3rd $200
ENTRY FEE: $35 for up to three entries  
ENTRY DEADLINE: July 20, 2025                     

JUROR: McArthur Binion creates highly personal and labor-intensive works that assert his unique position between minimalism, identity politics, and abstraction. Binion employs elemental materials such as oil-based paint stick, ink, and graphite to create dense interlacing grids on the surface of his paintings. This handmade geometry is applied to a ground layer of neatly tiled images-—reproductions of personal photographs and documents-—that offer a glimpse into the artist’s life: a birth certificate from Mississippi that designates him “colored,” a photo of the farm house where he was born, a passport-sized self-portrait, and an address book capturing his formative years in New York among contemporaries Brice Marden, Dan Flavin, and Jack Whitten. 

Binion’s visuals belie his abstract gridded compositions, disseminating intimate details of his personal history while also staking a firm position within the history of Black Abstraction. Highly influenced by poetry and bebop jazz, Binion swings between improvisation and order, abstraction and biography. His works refuse easy categorization, continuously shifting between a critique and an acceptance of the minimalist aesthetic, ultimately rooting the works in a dedication to the painting process.

Binion received his BFA from Wayne State University in 1971, and his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1973. His work has been the subject of major solo and group exhibitions at institutions including the Museo Novecento, Florence, Italy; Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA (2019); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (2019); Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (2018); McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX (2018); Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI (2018); Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MI (2017); Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA (2017); New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA (2017); National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC (2017); Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY (2016); Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX (2012).

Binion’s work can be found in numerous public and private collections including the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA; Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art at Rollins College, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Winter Park, FL; Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH; Art Bridges Foundation; Art Institute of Chicago, IL: Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI; Denver Art Museum, CO; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Joyner Giuffrida Collection; Kemper Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS; Mott-Warsh Collection, Flint, MI; National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA; Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Strauss Family Foundation Collection, Rancho Santa Fe, CA; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH; Wayne State University, Detroit, MI; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.

IMPORTANT DATES

• Entry Deadline: July 20, 2025
• Notification of acceptance by email: by August 6
• Window for delivery of works: August 11-25
• Deadline to receive paintings: August 25
• Show Opens to Public: September 4
• Juror/Visiting Artist Lecture: September 4, 5:30 p.m.
• Opening Reception: September 4, 7:00 p.m.
• Show closes: September 26
• Return shipping or pick-up of works: September 29-Oct 4

SHIPPING AND DELIVERY: Artists are responsible for all shipping and delivery costs. Works should be well packed in re-usable packing materials and packing instructions if necessary. A prepaid return shipping label must be included from FedEx or UPS or emailed to us before the close of the show. Please do not ship with USPS. 

INSURANCE: The University of Southern Mississippi will provide insurance coverage for all artworks while on the USM campus and gallery premises. Insurance of artworks while in transit to and from USM is the responsibility of the artist. USM is not liable for any damage or loss occurring during transit. 

SALES: Works can be available for purchase or listed as NFS (Not for Sale). Commission will not be taken on any sales.   

QUESTIONS OR MORE INFORMATION: For questions or more information, please contact Museum Director, Mark Rigsby, mark.rigsby@usm.edu

ABOUT THE MUSEUM: The University of Southern Mississippi Museum of Art was established in 1997 by the Mississippi Institute of Higher Learning Board of Trustees as an expansion of the C.W. Wood Gallery founded in 1977. Recently completed in 2014, the Gallery of Art and Design, a 2000 sq.ft. contemporary art gallery, is now the primary exhibition space for all USM Museum of Art exhibitions and events. 

Application Requirements

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS: Entries must be the original works and available for the duration of the exhibit. No Giclée prints or reproductions. Works received must be in good condition. Paintings should be professionally presented, framed or gallery wrapped with clean finished edges. Accepted works must be wired and ready for hanging or may be hung from stretcher bars. Wires must be in good condition and substantial enough to hold the weight of the work. No saw-tooth hangers or breakable glass allowed. Works not gallery-ready, differing significantly from the entry images, or lacking in presentation or craftsmanship may be omitted from the show.

Up to 3 entries may be submitted. Each entry will require the upload of 1 digital JPEG image, 72 dpi, no more than 5 MB and no smaller than 1920 pixels on the longest side. Each entry must also include, artist name, title of work, medium, (e.g. oil, acrylic, mixed, etc.), size (H x W inches), insurance value, year completed, and brief artist statement.

Eligibility Criteria

ELIGIBILITY: This national juried exhibition is open to all US residents,18 years of age or older. Entries must have been completed within the last 5 years. Works in any painting medium (oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, etc.), and all forms of representational and non-representational painting are eligible. Entries must not exceed 60x72 inches and should weigh no more than 30 lbs. Current USM students, faculty and staff are not eligible to apply.