Animals

About the Call

Since humans first painted animals on cave walls, artists have explored our complex relationship with the creatures that share our world. This juried exhibition from Site:Brooklyn invites contemporary artists to examine the multifaceted role animals play in art and culture. 

We are seeking work that explores personal connections with animals, how animal materials have shaped artistic traditions, or how creatures serve as symbols in storytelling and political commentary. 

We welcome imaginative interpretations that present animals through fantasy, myth, or allegorical representation. Whether your work celebrates, critiques, or simply observes our relationship with the animal kingdom, Animals seeks to show how zoological subjects continue to inspire and challenge artists through painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media, and beyond.

Dates

Final Submission Deadline: October 6, 2025 11:59 PM MT
Notification Letter: October 15, 2025
Online Exhibition: October 29, 2025 - November 29, 2025

About the Juror

Jesse Bandler Firestone is a curator, producer, and writer of contemporary art. He has held curatorial positions at Montclair State University, Wave Hill, The Shed, and Residency Unlimited. Across these roles, Firestone has organized exhibitions, commissions, and public programs that foreground process-driven and socially engaged practices, with particular attention to artists working through conceptual, queer, and discursive lineages.

At Wave Hill, he commissioned site-responsive projects that engaged the garden’s natural and social histories, including works exploring ecological restoration, human–nonhuman entanglements, animisms, and interspecies relations. At Montclair State University, he organized solo exhibitions and thematic group shows grounded in interdisciplinary analysis, connecting the University’s Galleries to a wide range of academic fields. At The Shed, he managed Open Call, an expansive commissioning program that supported 52 artists addressing topics from Indigeneity and ecology to technology and identity.

His exhibitions have been featured in The New York Times, Art F City, Hyperallergic, Artnet, Filthy Dreams, and other publications. In addition to his institutional work, Firestone is the founder of JFirestone Arts LLC, a curatorial and writing consultancy with clients including Sugar Hill Museum, Rhode Island School of Design, Harvard University, Kunstraum LLC, Facebook/META, and others. His writing has appeared in Sculpture Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Document Journal, Slate, and Baron Books.