Chance Encounter
2026 Open Call
Second State Press is please to announce our 2026 open call presented as part of Collective Futures. At its core, this exhibition understands community not as a fixed identity, but as an outcome, something produced through shared experience, conversation and proximity.
In community print studios, structure and spontaneity coexist. They are active systems in which networks can seed, collide and accumulate. Within this dynamic, print becomes not just a medium, but a network of people, knowledge, and evolving relationships.
We are seeking works that embrace this condition of “in-between”: between control and chance, individual and collective, intention and encounter and invite artists who work with and through space; who return, who linger, and who allow their practice to be shaped by others.
Artists whose work emerges from sustained relationships with spaces such as community studios, workshops, collectives, or other sites of shared production, and who view these environments as active collaborators in their process are encouraged to apply.
About our Guest Jurors:
Presented as part of Collective Futures, this open call sits within a city-wide network of artist-run spaces and community-driven initiatives across Philadelphia. Collective Futures centers collective practice as a vital mode of cultural production. Across disciplines and contexts, the project highlights how artists come together to build shared platforms, experiment with new forms, and sustain creative communities.
Finalists are eligible to receive a selection of cash and material prizes generously offered in support of the exhibition and made possible by Collective Futures and Penn Treaty Special Services District.
Chance Encounter has two esteemed guest jurors, Amze Emmons and Eva Wylie, who will be joined by Second State Press’ Executive Director, Emma Flick, to make up the selection committee.
Amze Emmons is a Philadelphia-based, multi-disciplinary artist with a background in drawing and printmaking. Emmons received a BFA from Ohio Wesleyan University and an MFA from the University of Iowa. He has had solo exhibitions and been in group exhibitions in innovative commercial galleries, artist-run spaces, and museums. He has received numerous awards including a Fellowship in the Arts from the Independence Foundation; an Individual Creative Artist Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Arts Council; and Fellowships at MacDowell. His work has received critical attention in Art in Print magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, New American Paintings, as well as many other publications. He is currently a Professor and Printmaking Program Head at Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Eva Wylie is a full-time faculty member at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, she is also a founding board member of Second State Press. Wylie served as SSP’s second Board President and maintains a studio in the Crane Arts building three floors above the press. She has shown in many different types of spaces, including artist-run spaces, commercial galleries, and non-profit organizations. Wylie’s practice encompasses large wall-printed installations as well as smaller works printed on sheer silks. A unique graphic dance that juxtaposes organic and synthetic imagery, her signature iconography investigates memory, perception, and the porous boundary between the seen and the imagined.
Submission Details:
Submission Deadline: August 7th, 2026, 11:59pm (EST)
Entries are accepted online via Airtable. Submission form linked below.
Entry Fee: $20
As as small nonprofit, Second State Press relies on the support of our community to sustain our general operations. Fees from the exhibition directly support the installation and promotion of the exhibition as well as all of sustaining our studio space and programs.
Eligibility: Local and national artists are invited to submit work. Submissions may engage printmaking in expanded ways such as installation, sculpture, social practice, publishing, or interdisciplinary approaches, but must maintain a conceptual or material relationship to print media. No solely digital works will be accepted. Works submitted must have been completed in the last two years. Up to four images may be submitted but only one unique submission per person is allowed.
Support: For general inquiries or application support please contact info@secondstatepress.org
$20 submission fee must be paid prior to submitting your application. Unpaid submissions will not be accepted.
Calendar:
Submission Deadline: August 7th, 2026 11:59pm (EST)
Finalists notified by September 4th, 2026
Exhibition Opening Reception: October 8th, 2026 6pm-8pm
On view through November 29th, 2026
