A Seat At The Table – WASPS South Block
Open Call for Artists & Makers: A seat at the Table 2026
WASPS South Block | Presented by Visual Arts Scotland
Deadline for submissions: 5pm 03/05/26 | Send your PDF submissions to admin@visualartsscotland.org
Exhibition Dates: 4th – 20th June, Private view 3rd June 5.30pm – 7.30pm
Exhibition Location: South Block Gallery Space, Osborne Street, Glasgow, G1 5QH
Curatorial text
A chair seems like a simple thing: something you sit on. Yet A Seat At The Table reveals that even this most familiar object is far from fixed. Bringing together artists, makers, designers and furniture makers, the exhibition explores the chair in its full range, from finely crafted, functional forms to works that question, extend, or unsettle what a chair can be. At its centre lies a deceptively simple question: when do we decide something is a chair, and what shapes that decision?
A chair is something we think we understand. A Seat At The Table invites us to look again.
About the Exhibition
A Seat At The Table is a group exhibition at Wasps Southblock that brings together a diverse range of practitioners working across furniture making, sculpture, design, and contemporary art. The exhibition is grounded in the chair as a recognisable, made object, something designed to be used, while also exploring how that understanding can be expanded, challenged, and redefined.
From carefully crafted, fully functional chairs to works that test the limits of use, representation, and definition, the exhibition reveals the chair as both a physical form and a site of inquiry. Some works invite sitting; others refuse it. Some prioritise structure, material, and skill; others operate through image, language, or absence. Together, they form a conversation around how meaning is constructed through object, function, and perception. Wasps Southblock is one of Glasgow’s leading creative hubs, housing a vibrant community of artists, designers, and makers. The exhibition takes place within the ground floor gallery space during the Glasgow International Festival period for which Wasps The Briggait is the central hub.
Concept and Context (Notes for Applicants)
The exhibition seeks to sit within a broader artistic and cultural lineage that has long used everyday objects to question how meaning is formed. From René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images, which challenged the relationship between image and object, to Joseph Kosuth’s One and Three Chairs, which explored object, representation, and definition, artists have repeatedly returned to familiar forms to expose the instability beneath them.
A Seat At The Table seeks to build on this lineage while remaining grounded in the material reality of the chair. It brings together makers and artists whose practices meet at this shared point, where the chair exists simultaneously as something to be used, something to be seen, and something to be interpreted.
The exhibition will seek to reflect on the wider social meanings carried by chairs. To offer someone a seat at the table is to include them; to withhold it is to exclude. Chairs organise bodies in space and signal presence, authority, and participation. These associations sit alongside the works, adding another layer to how the chair is understood.
Submissions
You are invited to submit up to four works for consideration, please include images of the works alongside information about the artwork including the Title of artwork, dimensions (cm), price, a brief artist’s statement and a CV.
We will accept proposals however please note all works must be delivered on the 1st June in an exhibition ready standard.
Please fill out the exhibition form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSctrrw3_rG5D8IOnp3UgTYW7yWAy7OegmJPaevdtYwGSrTR7A/viewform?usp=publish-editor
Please include all the information in one PDF document, and ensure your name is in the document title.
VAS Members and WASPS tenants are invited to submit up to four works for consideration. Please ensure you are a VAS Member with an up-to-date subscription or a WASPS tenant. You can join VAS via our website or emailing admin@visualartsscotland.org. This is a members only exhibition opportunity.
We will notify all artists of the outcome of their submission following the submission deadline, the exact date for results will depend on the volume of submissions, likely within 2-3 days of the deadline. Detailed exhibition packs will be emailed out following selection. If you have any questions about the exhibition or submissions process please direct these to admin@visualartsscotland.org, DO NOT contact the gallery directly.
