Open Call for Artists | 101 Art Book: Texture Edition is Open for Submissions
Over the years, the 101 Art Book Series has become an important part of the Arts to Hearts Project, growing from a single publishing idea into a collection that brings contemporary artists together around the ideas, materials, and subjects that shape their work.
There is something special about seeing 101 different artists respond to the same theme. No two interpretations are ever quite alike. A familiar idea can become deeply personal in one artist’s hands, completely unexpected in another’s, and somewhere between those different perspectives, a bigger picture of contemporary art begins to emerge.
Since its beginning in 2023, the series has continued to grow with every new edition, creating space for artists from different countries, backgrounds, disciplines, and stages of their careers to be seen alongside one another. Fourteen editions have already become part of the collection, each offering its own way of looking at the world through contemporary art.
And now, we are opening the doors to the next chapter.
101 Art Book: Texture Edition marks the 15th edition of the series, bringing artists together around something we experience constantly but often overlook: texture. The feel of a surface, the layers within a material, the marks left by a hand, and the physical qualities that can make an artwork feel almost tangible.
As the 101 Art Book Series continues to expand, each new edition adds another layer to the larger collection. Texture Edition is the newest one, and we cannot wait to see how 101 artists from around the world will interpret it in their own ways.
What Is The 101 Art Book?
The 101 Art Book is a global publishing project by the Arts to Hearts Project, created as a growing collection of books dedicated to contemporary artists and the many subjects, materials, and ideas they explore through their practices.
At the heart of the project is a simple question: what happens when 101 artists from around the world are brought together around one idea, and each artist is given the freedom to interpret it in their own way?
The answer changes with every edition.
One artist might approach a theme literally, another might find a deeply personal connection to it, while someone else might take it somewhere entirely unexpected. When those individual responses come together across the pages of one book, they create something larger than a collection of separate artworks. They offer a glimpse into how artists from different places, backgrounds, and creative practices are seeing and responding to the world at a particular moment.
Since launching in 2023, the series has published fourteen editions and brought together more than 1,300 artists. The collection has explored themes including Photography, Food, Collage, Landscape, Abstract, Portrait, Animal, Floral, Nature, Dogs, Pattern, Colors, and Faces.
Every volume adds a different perspective to the collection. A book centred around portraits reveals one landscape of ideas, while a volume exploring colour opens an entirely different conversation. Texture Edition now brings another layer into focus, looking at the surfaces, materials, marks, and physical qualities that become part of an artist’s visual language.
But the ambition of the 101 Art Book Series goes beyond creating one publication after another. With every edition, the collection continues to build a long-term record of contemporary artistic practice, bringing together different generations, countries, materials, and ways of making.
Each artist becomes part of that growing story, while each new volume becomes another piece of the larger picture.
The Theme for Fifteenth Edition: Texture
Texture is one of the most physical parts of making art. It can be built, scraped away, layered, repeated, worn down, discovered, or imagined. Sometimes it comes directly from the materials an artist works with, and sometimes it is created through marks, patterns, colour, and process on an otherwise flat surface.
For 101 Art Book: Texture Edition, we are opening the theme to each artist’s own interpretation and creative language. We want to see the many ways texture can become part of an artwork, whether through material exploration, surface, construction, erosion, layering, transformation, or the marks left behind through the process of making.
Texture can be tactile and physical, or something we simply feel when we look at an artwork. It can carry memory, suggest movement, reveal a material’s history, or create an immediate emotional response.
There is no prescribed subject, medium, style, color palette, or aesthetic for this edition. The work may be figurative, abstract, conceptual, narrative, symbolic, observational, experimental, or somewhere in between.
We want to see what texture means to you, and how you make it distinctly your own.
Meet Our Guest Curator: Rachel Burke
When the conversation is around texture, not many artists fit the theme quite as naturally as Rachel Burke. Her multidisciplinary practice brings together wearable art, sculpture, installation, performance, and craft, often using colour, ornamentation, and handmade materials to explore memory, nostalgia, sentiment, and the emotional power of objects.
Based in Meanjin/Brisbane, Rachel has exhibited nationally and internationally and collaborated with brands including Disney, Airbnb, and Barbie. In 2026, she became the inaugural Artist in Residence at Brisbane Powerhouse. As the guest curator for 101 Art Book: Texture Edition, Rachel will review submissions alongside the Arts to Hearts editorial team and help shape the final selection of 101 artists for this edition.
What’s In It For Artists?
Being selected for 101 Art Book: Texture Edition is about more than having your work included in a book. It is an opportunity to place your practice in front of new audiences and become part of a growing international collection of contemporary artists.
A Dedicated Place In The Book
Each of the 101 selected artists will receive a dedicated two-page spread featuring their artwork and artist profile in the premium hardcover publication. Every artist will also receive an Official Certificate of Recognition, which can be added to your CV, portfolio, website, artist biography, press kit, exhibition applications, residency applications, and grant applications.
Visibility, Marketing & PR
Selected artists will be included in the dedicated marketing and PR campaign surrounding the book. The campaign will reach the Arts to Hearts Project’s 200,000+ community of artists, collectors, art lovers, and creative professionals, alongside its 100,000+ email subscribers, through artist features, social media, email campaigns, book previews, launch content, and PR.
International Distribution
The finished book will be available through the Arts to Hearts Project Shop, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble, with distribution also expanding into independent and local bookstores. The publication will also be introduced to the wider Arts to Hearts professional network of collectors, galleries, curators, art professionals, and institutions.
Professional Recognition
Your inclusion creates a published credit that you can continue to reference throughout your artistic practice. Share your feature and certificate with galleries, curators, collectors, and professional contacts, and include your selection in your CV, website, portfolio, and applications.
Additional Recognition
Three artists from the final selection will receive additional recognition for their work.
Winner: $500 cash award, 4-page feature, glass trophy, certificate of recognition, Arts to Hearts promotional feature, and Artsy artist listing.
First Runner-Up: 4-page feature, glass trophy, certificate of recognition, Arts to Hearts promotional feature, and Artsy artist listing.
Second Runner-Up: 4-page feature, glass trophy, certificate of recognition, Arts to Hearts promotional feature, and Artsy artist listing.
Who Can Submit?
101 Art Book: Texture Edition is open to artists whose work explores surface, material, touch, or the physical qualities of making. Whether texture is built by hand, discovered in the world, or created through marks, layers, and process, we want to see how it becomes part of your artistic language.
The open call welcomes artists aged 18 and above from anywhere in the world, including emerging, mid-career, established, professional, independent, and self-taught artists. No formal art education, gallery representation, or previous exhibition history is required. This opportunity is open to individual artists only.
What Can You Submit?
We welcome original work across a wide range of practices, including:
Painting · Drawing · Photography · Sculpture · Ceramics · Textiles · Fiber · Printmaking · Collage · Assemblage · Found Objects · Paper · Digital Art · Installation · Mixed Media
Your work does not need to follow a particular subject, style, colour palette, or aesthetic. Texture may be physical, photographed, imagined, layered, subtle, experimental, or digitally created. Traditional, contemporary, and interdisciplinary approaches are all welcome.
Submitted work must be your original artwork and should place surface, material, or the process of making at the heart of the piece. Previously exhibited, published, or sold work is welcome as long as you hold the necessary rights. AI-generated artwork is not eligible.
A Little Note Before You Submit
If texture is important to your work, make sure your photograph captures it. Side lighting can reveal raised surfaces, layers, marks, and material details far better than flat, frontal light. Give your artwork the chance to show exactly what makes its surface special.
If the surface of your work is part of the story, we want to see it.
A Launchpad For Artists To Be Discovered
At Arts to Hearts Project, we have always wanted to create more than just spaces where artists can show their work. We want to help artists be discovered. With every 101 Art Book edition, we bring together artists whose work deserves to be seen, creating new points of connection between their practices and collectors, curators, galleries, art lovers, and people looking for someone new to follow. With Texture Edition, we are especially excited to discover the artists using surface, material, and the process of making in their own unique ways, and give those practices a place within a growing international collection.
If you have a body of work that makes you stop and look a little closer, we would love to see it. 101 Art Book: Texture Edition is the 15th chapter of a project that continues to grow with every artist who becomes part of it, and your work could be part of what comes next. Applications are open until 15th October 2026. Bring us your surfaces, your materials, your marks, your layers, and the stories held within them. We cannot wait to discover what texture looks like through your eyes.
Mark Your Calendar: The Deadline Is October 15
There is still time to become part of 101 Art Book: Texture Edition. Applications will remain open until 15th October 2026, giving artists around the world the opportunity to share their work for consideration.
We recommend submitting early so you have plenty of time to upload your work and avoid any last-minute technical issues.
Once submissions close, all eligible entries will be reviewed by the jury. We aim to share the results within 10 days, although the review period may vary depending on the number of submissions. All selected artists will be notified within three weeks of the submission deadline.
If your work has something to say through surface, material, or the marks of making, we would love to see it.
