Open Call: Layers of London

 

A collaborative project by General Assembly & Polly Bennett’s POLBEN's Pigment.

 

General Assembly and POLBEN’s Pigments invite artists to apply for a collaborative exhibition exploring London through colour, material, and creative interpretation.

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Founded in 2023 by Melanie Ashton, General Assembly is a contemporary art gallery dedicated to championing ambitious artistic practices and supporting the next generation of voices. For Melanie, collecting and presenting art is rooted in the conviction that art has the power to enhance how we live, shaping not only how we see the world but how we experience it. 

The gallery champions rigorous, historically informed, and critically engaged practices. The result is a program of exhibitions that are both clever and genuine, affirming the essential role of art in today’s visual culture.

 

Polly Bennett is a pigment maker, alchemist and environmental artist based in Kent. She founded POLBEN’s Pigment in 2020, originally transforming earth and plants into sustainable artist’s pigments and inks, and then branching out to lake, bone and synthesised pigments. Her colours carry the histories and geographies of their origins, reinforcing the connection between man and land.

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Selected artists will receive a set of 10 handmade pigments created by Polly (POLBEN’s Pigment). Each pigment has been produced from materials collected in, or historically associated with, London, including mineral, bone, lake pigments, and synthesised copper.

 

Artists are invited to use these pigments to create new artworks:

• In any medium (e.g. two-dimensional, three-dimensional, textiles, ceramics, etc.)

• Responding to London - its geology, history, culture, people, stories, or atmosphere.

 

Selected Artists Receive:

• A boxed set of 10 site-sensitive pigments in 30ml glass vials and corresponding colour chart from

POLBEN’s Pigment

• The opportunity to exhibit in a group show at General Assembly in September 2026

• Polly’s advice on pigment usage

 

Eligibility:

• Open to emerging and established artists

• Artists working in any medium

• Artists must be able to create work using the provided pigments in the time period

 

To apply, please submit:

• Artist statement (max 250 words)

• Proposal or idea for how you might use the pigments (max 500 words)

• 3 - 5 examples of recent work

• Website & Instagram

• Application Fee: £25

Applications must come in one single pdf

 

Dates:

• Applications Open: 13 April

• Application Deadline: 30 April

• Artists Informed By: 15 May

• Pigments Collected from General Assembly in London: from 15 May 2026

• Exhibition: Layers of London, General Assembly 1-30  September 2026

• Applications to be sent to Anna Austria: Residency@generalassemblylondon.com