Open Calls
Each year as part of our festival (January 15-February 15), we offer opportunities for artists and galleries to exhibit and discuss their work and printmaking processes. We have begun to expand our programming outside of that window. Open calls can be found below.
ORIGINAL PRINTS: A National Printmaking Showcase – Art Center of Corpus Christi
This exhibit is presented in collaboration with the Art Center of Corpus Christi for an exhibit held August, 2025. Reception dates TBD.
JUDGING: This is a blind jury, and works will be judged on traditional printmaking techniques and innovative approaches in contemporary printmaking. While non-traditional or digital output is accepted as a print element, submissions must utilize traditional print media as their primary technique. These include lithography, relief, intaglio, silkscreen, photopolymer plate (i.e. SolarPlates), and monotype. Solely digital and photographic prints are not eligible. For questions regarding eligible media, don’t hesitate to get in touch with info@printaustin.org. There will be a $500 prize for best in show.
ABOUT OUR JUROR:
Rigoberto Luna is an independent curator and the current NXTHVN Curatorial Fellow, Cohort 06, based in San Antonio, Texas, where he co-founded Presa House Gallery. Most recently, he opened All at Once: Reflected Through Glass at NXTVN in New Haven, Connecticut, and is organizing a forthcoming culminating exhibition at the James Cohan Gallery in New York City.
Luna served as Curatorial Assistant and Exhibitions Coordinator for the 2021 Texas Biennial and opened the traveling exhibition Soy de Tejas: A Statewide Survey of Latinx Art at Centro de Artes in San Antonio in 2023. He has co-organized exhibitions at the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston and the Chicano Park Museum in San Diego. In 2024, he curated José Villalobos: Diseñando Masculinidades / Designing Masculinities at ArtYard in Frenchtown, New Jersey, and he is currently organizing Ya Hecho: Readymade in the Borderlands, scheduled to open in July 2025 at the Tucson Art Museum.
In addition to his curatorial work, Luna has served as a guest juror for several prominent Texas-based institutions, including the Rockport Center for the Arts, K Space Contemporary in Corpus Christi, Art League Houston, Houston Arts Alliance, and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC).
DISCOUNTS: PrintAustin members will be able to pay $20 to enter vs the regular $35 fee. Find out more about membership. We have a limited number of waived registration fees regardless of membership status for artists in need should you be experiencing hardship. Please email us at info@printaustin.org if you’d like to check availability. All applications need to go through the CaFE application system.
IMPORTANT DATES
APRIL 14 Call opens!
MAY 31 Registration Deadline! 11:59 PM (MT)
JUNE Jury begins selection
JULY 1 Email notifications sent
JULY 20 Artwork due
TRAVELING TRADE PORTFOLIO
We’re still working on exhibition locations–dreaming big and looking to exhibit the hankies beyond August!
Inspired by the collaborative tradition and democratic nature of printmaking, our Trade Portfolio is an opportunity for artists to participate in a print exchange. Artists complete an edition of 15 prints and receive a portfolio of 10 collated prints from the other participants. PrintAustin retains five prints from each edition, which will be sold to benefit our programming.
We’ve added a twist to this year’s prints. We’re sending participants cotton handkerchiefs for printing on in lieu of paper so we can hang these flags Tibetan Prayer Flag style at three locations in Texas. We’re still working on where, but so far we have St. John Branch Austin Public Library in Austin and the Bathhouse Cultural Center in Dallas. We are in the process of securing exhibition locations in San Antonio–and hopefully elsewhere–down the line!
Theme: With so much happening in the world right now, we want to create a space for optimism and inspiration. We’re seeking work that reflects hope—something you’re looking forward to, a goal, an achievement, or a bright spot on the horizon. Let’s keep the energy uplifting! While we’re not here to censor, please keep in mind that our exhibitions will be in family-friendly spaces, and we reserve the right to curate selections based on the venue.
Setup: We’ll ship you handkerchiefs that are 15×15″ plain, white cotton. We’ll be shipping out 20 to each artist so you have a few to keep for yourself or for proofing. Once we get the handkerchiefs back, we’ll be sewing them to a piece of cotton rope for hanging.
Cost: $35 each, $25 each if you can find a group of 5–must all use same mailing address. This trade is limited to 50 participants. Due to the quick turnaround and the double shipping, we unfortunately need to limit this to US residents only.
Prints need to be postmarked by May 30, 2025 in order to be included in our first exhibition. We will be exhibiting the prayer flag prints at three different locations, with the final show ending in August. We anticipate prints will be mailed back to artists by early August.
Central Machine Works Exhibition — Seeking artists to exhibit for the month of September, 2025
Print Rodeo — Juried Print Fair, September 27, 2025
This print fair will be held on Sunday, September 27, from 11-4pm.
deadline to enter: June 15
Poster by Carlos Hernandez
THE CONTEMPORARY PRINT (TCP) — Juried exhibition
We’re still working out details. This call will open August 1 with a deadline of September 30.
JUDGING: This is a blind jury, and works will be judged on traditional printmaking techniques and innovative approaches in contemporary printmaking. While non-traditional or digital output is accepted as a print element, submissions must utilize traditional print media as their primary technique. These include lithography, relief, intaglio, silkscreen, photopolymer plate (i.e. SolarPlates), and monotype. Solely digital and photographic prints are not eligible. For questions regarding eligible media, don’t hesitate to get in touch with info@printaustin.org. NOTE: You may enter the same work into 5×5 and TCP should you enter both contests. However, should you be accepted to both exhibits, you can only accept one. There will be a $500 prize for best in show.
PrintEXPO — our annual juried print fair
This fair is held at Blue Genie, a 9,000 square foot space in Central Austin. We will be accepting registrations from September 1- October 15. The call is open to all local, regional, and international printmakers. We will notify artists by November 1.
Dates: PrintEXPO will be held February 6-February 8, 2026.
Tenative schedule: Friday we will be open to the public from 6-10pm, Saturday, 12pm-6pm, and Sunday, 12pm-5pm. Vendors are expected to be at their booth, or within the facility, during all operating hours.
Prices: Vendors will be able to purchase wall space in a variety of formats/prices vs. the booth style shown to the left. Stay tuned as we work out these details. We know that fairs are expensive when combined with travel, lodging, and BBQ and we will keep our prices as low as possible.
Jurors: Our fair will be juried by PrintAustin’s board of directors.
STEAMROLLER
This event will be held during PrintEXPO on Saturday, February 7, 2026, starting at noon and ending when all blocks are printed.
Should there be rain, we will move our operation inside and print by hand using Print Frogs.