Oddball Art Labs presents
Fairy Tale Freakout
Fairy Tales are a staple of childhood bedtime stories and children’s cartoons, but they go much deeper and can be much darker than modern media has shown us.
The team at Oddball Art Labs would love to see your interpretations of these strange stories that have been passed down for generations.
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.
Opening Reception
Friday, December 4, 2026
Hours: 6pm-9pm
Side Street Studio Arts
15 Ziegler Court
Elgin, IL 60120
Closing Reception
Saturday, January 9, 2027
Hours: 11am-2pm
Side Street Studio Arts
15 Ziegler Court
Elgin, IL 60120
The show will also be open from 3-7pm on these Fridays in December:
12/11 & 12/18
Fairy Tale Freakout Jam Paintings
The team at Oddball Art Labs is planning to have “Jam” paintings up for raffle at this show. Watch this space for details.
The show was made possible by grants from the Elgin Cultural Arts Commission and the Palmer Foundation.
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’. Feel free to reach out to us before submission if you think you might be pushing the limits. (But remember that we do like to be surprised!)
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, Clip Studio, 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.
Fairy Tale Freakout Artwork Drop-off!
The drop-off for this show is:
Sunday, November 29, 2026
10am-3pm
Side Street Studio Arts
15 Ziegler Court, Elgin, IL 60120
Here’s some inspiration to get you started:
- Paintings depicting the real stories in fairy tales and not the sanitized Disney versions.
- …and any other wild fairy tale inspired ideas you may have!
These are just a few ideas…but we really want to see what you’ll come up with. Surprise us!