Open Call for Printed Works April 2025 - Arts Collaborative Medford

ACM invites artists to submit works for our upcoming gallery exhibition in April, which will showcase curated prints alongside the organic abstract paintings of Elaina Bates-Egan. Her newest series focuses on societal processing through abstraction and the use of pattern and color to digest the complexities of our world. The exhibition places special emphasis on the intersection of current events and artistic practice. We are especially interested in printmakers whose works explore how art can be a form of active resistance against war, offering new ways of engaging with global conflicts and struggles for peace through their craft. Elaina’s work explores color and movement, drawing inspiration from the natural world through an organic process. Her paintings are as much about the act of creation as the final product. Her use of abstraction invites viewers into a world of fluidity and transformation, where shapes and hues seem to dance across the canvas. Often beginning with a specific inspiration—a death, an executive order, a vision of hope—her pieces evolve during the process, helping to guide both artist and viewer through the experience and into a healing space. Works that fit well into this exhibition will address not only the conflict around us but also the healing and reconciliation that can exist for the disenfranchised. We aim to show that there is power in our communities even during times when we feel powerless.