Call to Artists
2025 Open Call for Submissions: The MACRO Project Billboard Exhibition
The MACRO Project invites New York State artists to submit original artworks to be selected for display on billboards located on well-trafficked roads in the Finger Lakes region. Submissions are due Sunday, March 16, 2025. See submission specifications.
This year’s exhibition will explore the following themes:
What is Landscape?
Centers & Peripheries (Urban/Rural)
Water
micro to MACRO
What is Landscape? – Consider the multifaceted meanings of landscape—how it is represented, experienced, and transformed in both natural and urban environments. Can we separate human influence from natural processes anymore? Artists are encouraged to consider landscapes not just as physical spaces, but as cultural, emotional, and conceptual constructs. How do historical narratives, societal changes, and artistic movements shape our understanding of landscape?
Centers & Peripheries (Urban/Rural) – As cities grow, towns compete with suburban hubs, creating new densities, patterns of movement, and power. Digital connectivity further scrambles our notion of center and periphery – does physical location still matter? The margins, once considered secondary spaces, often become sites of innovation and cultural fusion. How do these shifting boundaries affect our communities and sense of belonging? Who decides what's central and what's peripheral? How do these shifts reflect broader societal changes in lifestyle, identity, and resource use?
Water – Rivers and streams weave through our world like threads through fabric. Rivers, lakes, and canals play significant roles in shaping cultures, economies, and societies. What stories do they carry in their currents? As climate change alters rainfall patterns and development reshapes river courses, how will these liquid highways adapt? Can we learn to read the health of our regions through the state of our waters? What is the significance of waterways in our history, present, and future? How do rivers, lakes, and canals shape transportation, trade, and local cultures? How do we reconcile the beauty and life-giving force of water with the threats of pollution, overuse, and climate change? How can art reflect both the practical and symbolic importance of water in our lives?
micro to MACRO – Scale shifts reveal recurring structures across different magnitudes of existence. How do tiny actions accumulate into massive changes? From microscopic organisms to cosmic phenomena, similar principles govern growth and organization. What happens when we zoom in or out on our world? Digital tools now let us see both atomic and astronomical scales – how does this change our understanding of our place in the universe?
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Four artists will be selected, one for each of the months June, July, August, and September 2025, to have their work displayed.
Submit artworks as digital image files to be printed and installed on a 22'x10' billboard. Artworks can be photographs and digital images, but also images of physical paintings, drawings, prints, models, and sculptures. However, at this time we are unable to consider moving images or sound.
MACRO, based in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate NY, is a collaborative initiative by curators Camaron Cohen and Rodrigo Guzman-Serrano dedicated to transforming public spaces and urban infrastructure through art exhibitions and installations. By claiming and repurposing billboards and other sites into dynamic art spaces, we challenge traditional perceptions and embed art within the urban fabric in a critical yet accessible way. Our mission is to offer viewers an alternative perspective, blending art into everyday landscapes while sparking meaningful conversations about art, society, and the environment.
Selected artists will receive their own billboard in the Finger Lakes for four consecutive weeks during June, July, August, or September 2025. The MACRO Project will cover all expenses for the production, mounting, and leasing of the billboard.
Image Usage Rights
Accepted artist's work is eligible for inclusion in The Macro Project’s promotional materials.
Please submit the following four (4) items via google form by Sunday, March 16, 2025 11:59pm (EST).
Up to three (3) original artworks with the title, media, original size, and date. Title image files as NAME_1, NAME_2, NAME_3.
Identify which theme(s) your artwork responds to (e.g., "What is Landscape?").
Current town/city of residence. Artists must live and work in New York State by the time of submission.
Short artist statement/bio (less than 500 words).
*All images must be .jpg and minimum 300 dpi. No exceptions
Artists must submit original work that engages with one or more of these themes. Enclosed entry/entries must be original work, independently created, composed, and executed by the submitting artist. No copies from other artists' works or paintings/drawings from other artists' photographs or from published material will be allowed. Submissions should offer a thoughtful exploration of the theme(s) through the artist’s unique perspective.
When selecting artwork, please consider the proportions of the billboard and how the work will be experienced by drivers along heavily trafficked roads. To ensure readability and visual impact, avoid small text or intricate details that may be difficult to see from a distance or when traveling at high speeds. Artists are encouraged to review last year's MACRO billboards for reference to better understand how the scale and proportions affect the viewer's experience.