Call Description

CALL FOR ENTRY 

Everything Must Go

Juried Group Exhibition
Juror: Lisa Solomon
July 11 – August 8, 2026

Everything Must Go reads first as spectacle — bold signs, urgency, the promise of clearance. Beneath that commercial language lies an existential truth: everything we know, love, and cling to is temporary.

This exhibition invites work that engages with impermanence, loss, transformation, and renewal. Artists might consider personal endings, cultural shifts, material decay, planned obsolescence, systemic erasure, or the quiet release of past identities. The theme also holds space for agency — the idea that small individual acts still matter within larger forces. Letting go becomes not only necessary but transformative. In clearing away, acceptance can bring clarity, and endings can open space for new beginnings.

We welcome artwork that explores these ideas conceptually, materially, metaphorically, emotionally, or socially.

Timeline 2026

• Sunday, March 15 – Application Portal Opens
• Sunday, May 17 – Deadline to Apply
• Monday, June 1 – artists notified
• Fri & Sat, June 26–27 — Artwork Drop-off (11 AM–3 PM)
• Saturday, July 11 — Exhibition Opening & Artists’ Reception*
• Friday, August 7 — First Friday Event (5–8 PM)
• Saturday, August 8 — Closing Event / Awards Ceremony*
• Sunday, August 9 — Artwork Pickup (Noon–4 PM)

*We encourage selected artists to attend the opening and closing events to meet other artists and collectors.

Awards

Two Exhibition Awards (in the 2026-27 exhibition calendar)

1. Juror Award – Featured hallway exhibition at Manna Gallery
2. Manna Gallery Award – Inclusion in Manna Gallery’s annual year-end group exhibition

Juror: Lisa Solomon 

Bay Area artist, teacher, and writer 

Lisa Solomon is a studio artist who moonlights as a college professor and illustrator/graphic designer. Profoundly interested in the idea of hybridization (sparked from her Hapa heritage), Solomon's mixed-media works and large installations revolve thematically around domesticity, craft, and personal histories. She often fuses "wrong" things together — recontextualizing their original purposes and incorporating materials that question the line between ART and CRAFT. She is also focused on bridging the gap between creativity, living creatively, and making a living as a creative. She received her BA in art from UC Berkeley and her MFA from Mills College. She has exhibited and works with galleries both nationally and internationally, is represented in numerous private and public collections, and continually tweaks artworks in her backyard studio. She resides in Oakland, California, with her husband, a teenager, two kitties, a three-legged pit-bull, a dachshund mutt, and many, many spools of thread. She is the author of A Field Guide To Color, a workshop work-a-long watercolor journal on color theory; the follow-up, The Color Meditation Deck, a historical book on Crayola crayons; Knot Thread Stitch, the Illustrator for 20 Ways to Draw a Chair, and Draw 500 Everyday Things. Her new book Art/Craft/Color will be released in March 2026. She is also an instructor on CreativeBug. 

www.lisasolomon.com | @lisasolomon 

Sales & Agreement

Commission: 50% Artist / 50% Gallery

Artists will sign a contract at drop-off covering: Commission structure, Payment procedures, Liability and insurance terms, and Pickup agreement. 

Important: Artwork left 15 days beyond the pickup date becomes the property of the gallery.

Promotion

Manna Gallery will promote both the call and the exhibition through:

• Press release sent to local media outlets
• Social media campaigns
• Paid ads (Instagram / Facebook / Oakland Art Murmur / SquareCylinder)
• Postcards & vinyl exhibition signage. Each selected artist receives postcards for promotion.

About Manna Gallery 

Manna Gallery, established in 2010, is an art space in Oakland’s Uptown Arts District, dedicated to showcasing the work of local and regional artists. We aim to create a vibrant and supportive community for artists and art lovers alike, and seek to provide diverse and engaging exhibitions that inspire and enrich our community. Manna Gallery is a member of Oakland Art Murmur, which promotes Oakland arts and sponsors events such as First Friday Art Walks, Oakland Style Week, and East Bay Open Studios.

473 25th St, Oakland, Ca 94612 | info@mannagallery.com

www.mannagallery.com  IG: @mannagalleryoakland

Open hours: Saturdays 12 - 5 pm, First Fridays 5 - 8 pm & by appointment.

We look forward to seeing work that reflects on what we hold, what we release, and what becomes possible when everything must go.
 

Application Requirements

Submission Details

• Fee: $30 for up to 3 entries (one image per entry, fee is non-refundable)
• One application per artist
• Artwork images. Please include artist name, title, medium, dimensions, year, and price (including the 50% commission) in your portfolio information. Artwork must be for sale.
• Short artist statement about the work you are submitting

Artwork Requirements

• 2D work: Maximum 60" in any direction
• 3D work: Maximum 12” in any direction
• Work must be gallery-ready: Proper wiring, D-rings, or cleats (No sawtooth hangers)
• The work selected by the juror must be the exact piece exhibited (no substitutions)
• Artwork must be available for the full duration of the exhibition

Eligibility Criteria

• Open to Northern California artists
• Must be 18 years or older
• BIPOC and LGBTQIA2S+ artists are strongly encouraged to apply
• Work must have been created within the last 4 years
• Artwork must be hand-delivered if accepted (no shipped work)