Closing Soon – Last 2 Weeks to Submit to The Things We Feel | Virtual Exhibition

Some feelings have a way of staying with us. A place we still remember. A person we cannot quite forget. The comfort of something familiar. The excitement of starting over. A quiet kind of longing that appears when we least expect it. Sometimes we can name what we are feeling. Other times, we just carry it with us without really knowing how to put it into words. 

For artists, these feelings often find their way into the work without us even realising it. A certain colour, a familiar face, a particular texture or gesture can hold a memory. A photograph can bring back a moment. A painting can say something we have struggled to explain. Sometimes, we make art because we have something to say, and sometimes we make it because we are still trying to understand what we feel. 

That is the idea behind The Things We Feel, the latest international virtual exhibition from Women in Arts Network. It is an invitation to explore those feelings and experiences that stay with us, whether they are joyful, difficult, nostalgic, tender or somewhere in between.

With only two weeks left before submissions close on October 5, 2026, there is still time to bring your work into this conversation and share a little of what you carry with you.

Why Virtual Exhibitions Matter to Us

The way artists share their work is changing. For generations, exhibitions were closely tied to physical spaces. A gallery, a museum, an opening night, a city. If an artist could not access those spaces, reaching new audiences could be difficult.

Virtual exhibitions have opened another door. An artist can be working in one part of the world and have their work encountered by someone thousands of miles away. A viewer who may never walk into a particular gallery can discover a new artist from their own home. And an emerging artist can begin building an exhibition history without waiting for the perfect physical opportunity to come along.

At Women in Arts Network, we genuinely believe virtual exhibitions are an important part of the future of how art is experienced and discovered. Over the past two years, we have presented more than 15 international virtual exhibitions featuring over 800 artists from around the world. Each exhibition has brought together artists with different backgrounds, practices and perspectives around a shared theme.

Our latest exhibition, Life, Love & Everything She Creates, is currently live, featuring the work of 50 women artists. And now, we are opening the doors to our next exhibition.

Introducing The Things We Feel

The Things We Feel asks a simple question: What do you feel?

There is no single answer. Your work might explore love, grief, joy, longing, fear, nostalgia, belonging, vulnerability, desire, solitude, hope, anger, comfort, connection or transformation.

But your artwork does not have to literally show an emotion. Perhaps it comes from a memory you have carried for years. Perhaps it captures a particular atmosphere. Maybe a landscape reminds you of home, a colour brings back a person, or an abstract composition expresses something you have never quite been able to name.

Maybe your work simply makes someone else feel something. That is what makes this theme so open. We are interested not only in what a work represents, but in what sits behind it. The experiences, memories, emotions and inner worlds that become part of an artist’s creative practice.

Who Can Submit?

The Things We Feel is open to women artists and non-binary artists aged 18 and above from anywhere in the world.

You do not need to have an extensive exhibition history to apply. Whether you are an emerging artist preparing for your first international opportunity or an established artist with years of experience, you are welcome to submit.

The exhibition is also open across a wide range of visual art practices, including:

• Painting
• Drawing
• Photography
• Sculpture
• Ceramics
• Printmaking
• Illustration
• Digital art
• Collage
• Textiles
• Mixed media
• Video
• Installation
• Contemporary and experimental practices

Your work can be figurative, abstract, conceptual, expressive, minimalist or somewhere in between. What matters is your interpretation of the theme and the story or feeling your work carries.

What Can You Submit?

Artists can submit up to three artworks for consideration.

When preparing your application, you will need to provide information about each artwork, including its title, medium, size and year. Artwork images should be submitted in JPG or PNG format and must be under 5 MB each.

Think about the works you choose carefully. You do not necessarily need to choose the work that looks the most obviously connected to the word “feeling.” Sometimes the connection is much quieter.

What memory sits behind this work? What experience shaped it? What were you feeling when you made it? Or perhaps the more interesting question is: what do you hope someone else feels when they see it?

How Does The Submission Process Work?

The application process is straightforward.

First, you will complete the online application form with your contact and artist information. You will also share some details about yourself and your artistic journey. Then, you can upload up to three artworks responding to The Things We Feel, along with the requested artwork details.

The virtual exhibition submission fee is $15 USD. Artists who would also like to be considered for the optional Artist Interview Feature can choose the combined option for $34 USD. Once your application is submitted, your work enters the juried selection process.

Note: submission does not guarantee selection.

Every Submission Goes Through A Juried Process

We want The Things We Feel to feel like a real exhibition, not simply a page where every submitted artwork is placed together.

Every submission will be reviewed through a juried selection process. The selection panel will consider factors including artistic quality, originality, technical execution, relevance to the theme and overall presentation.

The jury will be looking at each submission individually and considering how it responds to the theme in its own way. This is also why we encourage artists to think beyond the most obvious interpretation.

A painting does not have to depict someone crying to be about grief. A photograph does not have to show two people embracing to be about connection. An abstract work does not need a recognizable subject to communicate something deeply emotional.

Sometimes the feeling is in the colour. Sometimes it is in the space. Sometimes it is in what is missing.

What Does It Mean To Be Selected?

For selected artists, The Things We Feel offers the opportunity to become part of an international curated virtual exhibition hosted by Women in Arts Network and accessible to audiences around the world.

Your artwork will be professionally presented alongside other selected artists, allowing your practice to be discovered by people beyond your existing artistic and local community. Selected artists can also add the exhibition to their CV, website, portfolio and exhibition history, and will receive a digital certificate of participation.

For emerging artists especially, these experiences can become meaningful building blocks as an exhibition history begins to take shape. But beyond the professional credit, there is something else we love about virtual exhibitions.

They create connections. Your work might be made in a small studio somewhere in the world and end up being seen by someone who has never encountered your practice before. Someone may recognize their own memory in your painting. Someone may pause over a photograph because it reminds them of home. We never quite know where an artwork will travel once we put it into the world.

Want To Tell Us More About Your Work?

Artists who want to go beyond the artwork itself can also choose the optional Artist Interview Feature.

If selected and you choose the add-on, you will receive a dedicated interview published on the Women in Arts Network website. It gives you the opportunity to talk about your creative journey, inspirations, artistic process and the story behind your work. The feature is also promoted across Women in Arts Network’s digital platforms.

Because sometimes looking at the artwork is only the beginning. We want to know what brought you there.

Two Weeks To Share The Things You Feel

There are now only two weeks left to submit to The Things We Feel.

The submission deadline is October 5, 2026. Selected artists will be notified within three weeks of the deadline, with the virtual exhibition expected to launch approximately one month after selected artists are announced.

If there is a piece sitting in your studio that feels connected to this theme, this might be the moment to finally share it. If you have been thinking about submitting but kept telling yourself you would do it later, there are only two weeks left.

And if you are wondering whether your interpretation is “right,” remember that there is no single way to feel something. The Things We Feel was created with that openness in mind. Bring us the joy. The memory. The ache. The quiet. The uncertainty. The feeling you can explain, or the one you still cannot quite put into words. Turn it into art, and let someone else feel it too.

Submit your work to The Things We Feel before October 5, 2026, and become part of the next Women in Arts Network virtual exhibition.