Artist Open Call

HYSTERIA  

Women, Mental Health & Identity
Open Call for Artists

Brighton Fishing Quarter Gallery
20th – 25th April 2027

Private View: Friday 23rd April, 7pm–10pm

Submission Deadline: 1st November 2026

HYSTERIA is an upcoming group exhibition exploring the historical and ongoing treatment of women’s mental and physical health, identity, neurodivergence, trauma, and medical misogyny.

The exhibition was conceived following a deeply personal family experience spanning three generations of women impacted by misdiagnosis, institutionalisation, stigma, and the long shadow of “hysteria” — a term once used to dismiss and pathologise women whose symptoms, emotions, or behaviours medical institutions failed to understand.

Inspired by personal histories involving lobotomy, psychiatric incarceration, neurological illness, ADHD, Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), and vascular dementia, HYSTERIA seeks to create a space for artists to respond to themes surrounding:

• Women’s mental health
 • Medical misogyny
 • Neurodivergence
 • Trauma and inherited narratives
 • Identity and memory
 • Institutional harm
 • Motherhood and womanhood
 • Historical psychiatric treatment
 • The body and illness
 • Rage, grief, survival and resilience

We are seeking submissions from artists working in all mediums including painting, sculpture, photography, installation, textiles, sound, moving image, and mixed media

.Submissions Open: 1st June 2026 

Submission deadline: 1st November 2026
 • Selected artists contacted by: 1st December 2026
 • Final images and artwork information due: Friday 2nd April 2027

Delivery of work:
 • Sunday 18th April 2027, 10am - 5pm
 or
 • Monday 19th April, 10am - 5pm

Exhibition Dates:
 • Tuesday 20th April – Sunday 25th April 2026
 • Open daily, 10am–5pm

Private View:
 • Friday 23rd April, 7pm–10pm