Call for Artists

Oddball Art Labs presents

Reduce. Reuse. ReCREATE!

“Olga Bird” painting by Alisa Duda, Before & After

Wait?! Oddball is hosting a SECOND open call art show in 2025?! Where do I sign up? (Here, after our Summer show.)

A few of our artists paint on “non-standard” surfaces and rework existing art…and it got us thinking. Let’s host an art show that is all about saving items from the trash and turning them into amazing creations.

This is an open call show challenging the Elgin and Chicagoland creative community to share their visions. We are hoping to inspire the same mix of strangely surprising paintings, drawings, and mixed media 3D work that makes people smile while at our shows.

Find more info and inspiration on the event page.

Submit your work before October 19, 2025 to be a part of this show.

Submission FAQs

We’re glad you asked. The art displayed at the Robin and Mark Seigle gallery in Elgin Artspace Lofts at ArtSpace should preferably be ‘All Ages’. We will review any submissions and have approved tasteful nudity and/or innuendo in previous shows.

This is intended to be a lighthearted and fun show for everyone.

All artwork submitted must be Made by Humans!

While many of us rely on Adobe, Affinity, Canva, Corel, and many other digital creativity tools to make our art…they are just tools to leverage our human creativity.

Digital prints of work created by humans will always been welcomed at Oddball Art Labs shows.

AI “Art” however is NOT welcome in this show.

All artwork submitted must be ready to hang!

All drawings, prints or photos must be framed. While paintings on canvases do not need to be framed, please make sure the visible edges are presentable.

D-Hooks and wire on the back is preferred, but quality sawtooth hangers are acceptable.

The point where the wire hangs on the nail should not be visible above the artwork.

Fishing line and/or string tends to be unreliable and as such is not considered acceptable for hanging.

If you are submitting 3D art, please let us know if you will need a pedestal.

Oddball Art Labs will retain 20% of all art sales to help pay for the show expenses. Please price your work accordingly.

Any prints for sale should be dropped off with the art at the defined drop off date. We ask this so we can plan out the Print Table space requirements in advance.

All prints should be in clear, plastic print bags, and should have labels on the bags that list the Art Title, Artist Name and price.

Maximum print size for our shows is 11″ x 17″ as any size larger can not be guaranteed to safely transportated to/from the gallery.

We don’t have a budget for shipping artwork across the country. As such, this show is focused on artists local to the Elgin / Chicagoland area.

If you won’t be able to handle in-person drop-off & pickup, please talk to us prior to submitting.

We have welcomed the work of artists out of state if they are open to covering the shipping costs.

Reduce. Reuse. ReCREATE!
Submission Coming Soon!

Get on our mailing list to be informed about “Reduce. Reuse. ReCREATE“, our next open call art show coming in November! Submissions will be open in July!

Please note: To help fund our show this year, there will be a $10 fee for artist submissions, which includes up to five (5) pieces of art.

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ReCREATE Artwork Drop-off!

The drop-off for this year’s show is:

Saturday, November 1, 2025
10am-3pm

Sunday, November 2, 2025
11am-1pm

The Robin and Mark Seigle Gallery at Elgin ArtSpace Lofts
51 S. Spring St.
Elgin, Il 60120


Opening Reception

Friday, November 7, 2025
Hours: 6pm-9pm

The Robin and Mark Seigle Gallery
at Elgin ArtSpace Lofts
51 S. Spring St.
Elgin, IL 60120

Closing Reception

Saturday, November 29, 2025
Hours: 11am-3pm

The Robin and Mark Seigle Gallery
at Elgin ArtSpace Lofts
51 S. Spring St.
Elgin, IL 60120


Please feel free to use our contact form if you need to get in touch with us with any general questions.

The show was made possible by grants from the Elgin Cultural Arts Commission and the Palmer Foundation.

elgin cultural arts commission logo
palmer foundation logo