Open Call for Artists, Poets, & Writers: Submit to the 2nd Volume of Artists on the Lam’s 1st Zine, LAMINATOR!

Artists on the Lam is thrilled to announce the launch of our inaugural zine, LAMINATOR! All artists, poets, and writers from anywhere in the world are welcome to submit work for publication!

In an ever increasingly digital world, we often find ourselves seeking ways to unplug, searching for the tangible, the analog, something tactile and physical we can touch and hold with our own hands, something to keep and cherish as a memento, as ephemera, something to lose, something to find, something to give and share with a loved one like a secret.

Don’t get us wrong—we’re all about the digital realm too; after all, Artists on the Lam started out as a blog back in 2011 (and it’s still going strong!), and during this ongoing pandemic we pivoted to virtual exhibitions (such as SLAYSIAN in 2020, DECAHEDRON in 2021, and HYGGE in 2023). And, of course, you’re reading this online.

But this project has been a long time coming; Laminator is the brainchild of Chicago-based artist, indie curator, writer, and Artists on the Lam founder Jenny Lam, who has been keeping snail mail—and the USPS—alive for the past 16 years with her beloved postcard project Dreams of a City, and who was probably the only young person in the world who didn’t get a smartphone until 2014 (and then stubbornly used that same old phone for 7 years).

And, much like the soothing sounds of a pencil scratching on paper, there’s just something about the feel of flipping through the pages of a good book.

What we’re looking for:

Visual art
- All mediums and forms are welcome! Examples:
  - Drawing
  - Painting
  - Photography
  - Printmaking
  - Collage
  - Etc.!
Poetry
Prose
- All forms are welcome, including non-fiction such as personal essays, anecdotes, letters, etc.!

There’s no theme; submit your best work! (But if that’s too broad for you and you’d like some guidance, here’s a theme Artists on the Lam has always been obsessed with: Dreams. Interpret that however you wish.) Feel free to take a look at the artwork and poetry sneak peeks for the previous volume here and on our socials to get a feel for some of the things we like.

There’s no application fee! It’s free to submit to the zine!

Application

Ready to apply? Complete the steps below:

1. With “ZINE #2 Submission” as the subject line, email artists.on.the.lam {at} gmail {dot} com the following:

Name
Where you’re based
- (example: Chicago, Illinois, USA)
Email address
Website and/or social media
Title of your work
Short (a few sentences will do) artist statement or bio
- (If you’re selected, all of the above (except your email address) will be published in the zine, so if readers love your work, they can visit your site and/or socials and check out more from you!)
How you heard about this opportunity

2. Attach your artwork / poetry / prose to your email

Use the following format for your filename: Your Name - Title of Your Work
- (example: Bob Ross - Happy Trees)
Attach images in .jpg format and writing in .doc format
You may submit up to 4 works total

That’s it!

All of the above steps must be completed. Unfinished submissions will not be reviewed.

Please do not inquire regarding the status of your submission. All applicants will be notified about a week or so after the deadline.

(Optional additional opportunity for artists) Online art show

Bonus: Visual artists, you’re also invited to submit to our upcoming virtual exhibition! Selected artists will get their own permanent webpages here on Artists on the Lam (to see what these might look like, feel free to explore the artist pages of our past virtual exhibitions such as SLAYSIAN, DECAHEDRON, and HYGGE). If you’re interested, expand the text below for more details:

Complete the same steps above, except for the following differences:
- In the email body
  - Instead of “ZINE Submission” as the subject line, write “ZINE + ART SHOW Submission”
  - Instead of just the title of your work, include the title, year completed, medium, dimensions, and retail price of your work (it’ll be a 60/40 split, so you’ll receive 60% of the retail price)
    (example: Hope (2023), India ink and gouache on Arches paper, 14 x 17 in., $350)
  - Include your Venmo or Zelle (or PayPal, or if you have another preferred payment method) for if your art sells
    (selected artists will be notified if their artwork sells and will be paid immediately afterwards, and will be responsible for mailing or transporting their work to the collector)
- Attachments
  - If your artist statement or bio is longer than just a few sentences, you may include your longer version as an attached Word doc, and if you have both an artist statement and a bio, you may include both
  - You may submit up to 10 images
  - (Optional) Attach a photo of you (can be a headshot, a photo of you in your element in your studio, etc.), which will also be published on your personal webpage under your statement and/or bio
- Application fee of $25 - PayPal link

Timeline

Submission deadline: Friday, January 24, 2025, 11:59pm CST
Everyone will be notified whether they’ve been selected about a week or so after the deadline.
When the zine will be completed, printed, and ready to order: Aiming for Spring 2025. We’ll keep people posted of course.

Cost of one copy: It will depend on how many pages the zine ends up being; we’re going to set the retail price at a rate that’s as affordable as possible without skimping on quality. Volume 1 is $16.99 and was professionally printed with 108 full color pages on 80 lb. satin paper, 100 lb. gloss covers with gloss lamination, and perfect bound.

Good luck! Can’t wait to review your submissions!

Would you like to help support this project?

Any amount is greatly appreciated!

Donate

About the zine’s editor

Named one of 2023’s Culture Shifters by HuffPost and hailed as a “polymath wave-maker” and “a pioneer of art that is interactive, collaborative, and as much fun for viewers as it is for artists,” Jenny Lam is an award-winning self-taught artist, independent curator, and writer. She is the Chicago-born Chinese American daughter of immigrants from Hong Kong, and she graduated from Columbia University in New York City, where she served as the President of Postcrypt, Columbia’s undergraduate student-run art gallery. She is the founder of Artists on the Lam (see below!), which was voted “Best Arts Blog” in the Chicago Reader’s Best of Chicago issue, and her interactive show I CAN DO THAT was named the audience choice for “Best Exhibit” in the 20th anniversary edition of NewCity’s Best of Chicago issue. Her artwork has been exhibited at places like the Chicago Cultural Center and Chicago Public Library, and she is the creator of Dreams of a City, an ongoing city-wide participatory public art and mapping project for which she was awarded the Individual Artists Program Grant from Chicago DCASE. Jenny has curated exhibitions at venues like the renowned Zhou B Art Center and guest judged shows at galleries like Water Street Studios. She has served as the Head Curator of 4Art Inc. Gallery, and she has written extensively for publications like Time Out and Sixty Inches from Center and been published in the graphic novel anthology New Frontiers. She has been a guest speaker at University of Illinois Chicago, given a Leonardo LASER Talk, and spoken on panels at Facebook Chicago and Startup Art Fair; performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and 20x2 Chicago; conducted Visiting Artist Workshops at the Chicago Children’s Museum; conducted portfolio reviews at Harold Washington Library’s West Side Community Bureau; and been featured on PBS, PetaPixel, Fstoppers, Character Media, AsAmNews, I Am New Generation, Women Direct, WGN, WBEZ, Crain’s, DNAinfo, Block Club Chicago, Chicagoist, Gapers Block, Gozamos, and more. Her photography—all shot on her iPhone 5s—has been featured in exhibits around the world including the Urban Photo Awards at Trieste Photo Days in Italy and on Guardian Travel, NZ Herald, Buzzfeed, Atlas Obscura, Mashable, Matador Network, Folk Magazine, Choose Chicago, Enjoy Illinois, Hong Kong Tourism Board, RedEye, Asia Art Archive, Untapped Cities, Tiny Atlas Quarterly, and more. A lifelong artist who has been drawing for as long as she can remember, she is also the 1st Prize Winner of the National Park Service’s Centennial Project.

About Artists on the Lam

Since its founding in 2011, Artists on the Lam has been dedicated to championing local artists while channeling global perspectives (our motto!), making art accessible, bringing people together, breaking barriers, building community, inspiring people to see the world anew, and demonstrating that art is for everyone. Praised by the press and the public as “a global arts mover and shaker” and as an enterprise that “keeps Chicago’s arts and cultural scene fresh, engaging, and thriving” and “embodies everything that we, in the art world, need,” Artists on the Lam has spent the past 13.5 years cultivating a vibrant international community across 177 countries and counting, connecting artists and art lovers from all walks of life. BIPOC-run and women-run, Artists on the Lam has launched the careers of emerging artists and provided a prominent platform for emerging, mid-career, and established artists alike, whether it’s through the blog that started it all, or through groundbreaking—and rule-breaking—interactive art shows in pop-up locations throughout Chicago. From massive audience participatory exhibitions like LEXICON, which was lauded by visitors as “wonderful training and exercise in the world of art appreciation,” to storied celebrations like SLAYSIAN, which South Side Weekly commended for its “role in educating and engaging with the broader Chicago community” and for showcasing “a subset of artists that have always been part of the city’s art scene, but rarely acknowledged as a collective,” Artists on the Lam has always taken pride in being at the forefront of art.