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ODYSSEY

The Open: Odyssey

Open call to artists

Hastings Contemporary and Sussex Contemporary have partnered to launch our first Open exhibition, launching in spring 2026. Submissions now open.

Find out more and apply

This landmark collaboration will bring together emerging and established artists from across the region, celebrating all things Sussex. Spanning the entire gallery, the exhibition will celebrate the diversity, energy, and innovation of contemporary art today, offering a platform for bold voices and fresh perspectives.

The opportunity is open to any artist who is connected to Sussex through residence, birthplace, education, or work.

Theme: Odyssey

We invite artists to submit work that responds to the theme Odyssey. This theme reflects on journeys shaped by tides, time, and transformation, on the restless call of the sea and the stories it inspires. Hastings, a place long defined by its proximity to the coast, provides a fitting setting for such explorations.

We welcome work that resonates with our mission, engaging with marine ecology, climate change, and the fragile richness of coastal life. Odyssey may evoke many narratives: from ancient maritime myths to contemporary migration, from the eroding edges of land to intimate personal voyages, from legends carried by the waves to the shifting realities of rising seas.

Key dates

Submissions Open: Monday 13 October 2025
Submissions Close: Sunday 18 January 2026
Exhibition Opens: Saturday 28 March 2026

Find out more and apply

 

Meet the judges

CHRIS PACKHAM

Chris Packham is a conservationist and broadcaster known for his environmental and animal welfare activism. His TV credits include Springwatch and Earth for the BBC and Is it Time to Break the Law for Channel 4. Alongside his ambassadorial roles for numerous NGOs, he runs independent campaigns aimed at nature recovery and ending animal cruelty. Chris is also a vocal advocate for neurodiversity with a special focus on autism.

ELENA CRIPPA

Elena Crippa is Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Courtauld Gallery, where she recently launched a new commission with the artist Rachel Jones and is curating a forthcoming exhibition of drawings and paintings by Salman Toor, opening in the autumn of 2026. She was previously Head of Exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery and Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Tate Britain.

EVA LANGRET

Eva Langret is Director, EMEA for Frieze, where she leads on Frieze London and oversees all Frieze initiatives in the region. Passionate about championing emerging artistic talent, she is the Vice Chair of the board of the Camden Art Centre, a place for world-class contemporary art exhibitions and education, a trustee of Fluxus Arts Project, a not-for-profit organisation created by the Institut français du Royaume-Uni, and a trustee of Forma, a London-based non-profit organisation supporting emerging and mid-career British and international artists.

FIONA BANNER

Artist Fiona Banner often works under the moniker of The Vanity Press. She established the imprint in 1997, with her seminal book The Nam. Since then she has published many works, some in the form of books, some sculptural, some performance based. In 2009 she issued herself an ISBN number and registered herself as a publication under her own name. Humour, conflict and language are at the core of her work. Banner works in London and on the south coast, she exhibits internationally.

ISABEL ROCK

Isabel Rock is an artist and activist. Working in all mediums, she crafts surreal narratives with fantastical beings and hidden morals that blend humour with the darker side of human nature. Active in non-violent civil disobedience groups, most recently Citizens Arrest Network, Rock’s activism and art examine and rebel against the systems we live in. Her drawing made during a month in HMP Bronzefield after a Just Stop Oil protest won the Evelyn Williams Drawing Award (2023) resulting in a solo exhibition at Hastings Contemporary in 2025-26.

KATHLEEN SORIANO

Kathleen Soriano is an independent curator, art historian, and broadcaster. With over 35 years’ experience in the art world she has been responsible for collections, contemporary and historical exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the Royal Academy of Arts, where she was Artistic Director (2009–2014), as well as at Compton Verney Art Gallery, where she was Director (2005–2009). Her broadcast activities include twelve series of Portrait and Landscape Artist of the Year for Sky Arts. Kathleen is currently Director at Hastings Contemporary.

ZOE LYONS

Zoe Lyons has worked as a stand up comic for over 20 years. She has appeared on many TV shows including QI, Have I Got News For You and hosted the quiz show Lightning. She is one of the most recognisable voices on BBC Radio 4 and is regularly heard on Just a Minute, News Quiz and The Unbelievable Truth. She lives in Hove with her partner and terrier. She is a keen scuba diver and is an Ocean Ambassador for the Marine Conservation Society.