COMME CA ART X AWOL OPEN CALL 2026

Comme Ca Art X AWOL Studios Open Call Exhibition

Comme Ca Art Gallery, 5th Floor | Hope Mill | 113 Pollard Street | Manchester | M4 7JA

Exhibition Dates: 19.06.26 - 11.07.26

Now in its fifth year, the Comme Ca Art × AWOL Studios Open Call Exhibition has become a highlight of Manchester’s visual arts scene. Receiving more than 150 submissions, the exhibition celebrates artists working across the following regions: Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Cumbria, County Durham, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and Lincolnshire.

This year, 23 artists were selected from the longlist by a panel of three distinguished judges. As the judging panel changes each year, every exhibition brings a fresh perspective, making it a unique and rewarding show to curate.

THE JUDGES

Sarah Walters - a cultural journalist and PR professional.

Pasta Paul - who describes himself as a record selector.

Matthew Frost - a retired academic press commissioning editor where he oversaw publications in art, architecture, film, theatre and literature. Matthew is a member of the Manchester Contemporary Art Fund, and a strong supporter of the Manchester art scene.

The exhibition includes ceramics, paintings, photography, printmaking and sculptures.

THE ARTISTS

ANASTASIA BORODINA, ANDREW WATSON, ANITA MEMARZADE, ANTHONY LEWIS-DOWELL, DANIEL HESTER, DYLAN LISLE, GABRIEL BARKER BENNETT, HANNAH FRAY, HELEN DAVIES, IMA PICO, JACQUI BARROWCLIFFE, JAKE DAVIS, JASMINE GARDNER, KIM STUTTARD, LUKE SKIFFINGTON, MAGGIE HARGREAVES, OLGA MUN, PAUL MELLOR, SIMGE VURTAK, STEFANIE TROW , STEVE SUTTON, VICTORIA ELLIS, YVONNE BLAIR

Every year the judges select a winning artist, who is awarded a £2,000 prize and a highly commended artist, who is awarded a £500 prize. This year the judges selected:

WINNING ARTIST - ANASTASIA BORODINA

STORM WARNING 2025/26
Oil Paint on Linen
91cm x 106cm
£8,200
by Anastasia Borodina

"The starting point for this work lies in early memories of watching underwater films by Jacques Cousteau, where the ocean appeared as a self-contained and

almost untouched world. That sense of fascination has stayed with me. More recently, I came across accounts by oceanographers describing deep-sea expeditions, including the presence of plastic debris even at extreme depths.

In the painting, forms hover between the organic and the artificial. What might first be read as marine life resists a stable definition. I am interested in this ambiguity, in how easily the boundaries between natural and man-made begin to blur, and how a new visual reality quietly takes shape." Anastasia Borodina

Anastasia Borodina is a contemporary figurative painter currently based in Manchester, UK. Working primarily in oil on canvas, cardboard, and panel, she combines classical academic technique with a modern, emotionally resonant sensibility.

She is best known for her iconographically structured figurative compositions, which explore psychological depth, cultural symbolism, and the fragile boundary between inner and outer worlds. Her paintings investigate the transformation of traditional European symbols within contemporary society, focusing on the human search for meaning, identity, and emotional grounding. Childhood plays a central role in her work as a formative period in which patterns of self-identity and perception are shaped.

HIGHLY COMMENDED ARTIST - JACQUI BARROWCLIFFE

PORTRAIT AFTER LOSS (Collapse ii)' 2025
Cyanotype on Cloth, Threads from an unpicked Handkerchief
30cm (W) x 37cm (H) x 3cm (D)
£400
by Jacqui Barrowcliffe

"One of a series of cyanotypes that form part of the body of work “Portrait after Loss” exploring loss, resilience and growth through the language of unpicked threads. The series of cyanotypes show the process of unpicking a handkerchief.
Stemming from personal experience of grief, the work recognises our capacity to accept change and grow around absence. As the handkerchief is unpicked it loses its form and function and is reduced to a pile of threads. Transformed into a more organic state, it speaks of fragility and strength, presence and absence, loss and transformation. This piece forms part of a wider practice in which I use the unpicking of cloth as a metaphor to consider processes of collapse and regeneration." Jacqui Barrowcliffe

Jacqui Barrowcliffe is a multidisciplinary artist based in Scarborough, UK. Her work embraces slowness and process, exploring themes of change and time within personal narratives and environmental concerns.
Jacqui's practice spans digital and alternative photography, video, installation, textiles and found object processes. From work reflecting on grief and
resilience through the unpicking of cloth, to video installation and cyanotype pieces that consider our relationship with nature. All of her work stems from lived experience of loss, framed within a wider exploration of personal, collective and environmental grief and transformation.
Jacqui has exhibited widely across the UK and in Barcelona, where she was previously based.

The majority of the artworks in exhibition are for sale so if you are looking to start your own art collection or add to your existing collection gallery director, Claire Turner will be happy to show you around the gallery and discuss the artists in the exhibition.

The exhibition is open for visitors on Saturdays throughout June from 11:00 - 14:00.

All other times are by appointment. Please see Gallery contact details below.

PLEASE CONTACT COMME CA ART DEALERS FOR ANY ENQUIRIES.

CLAIRE TURNER | claire@commecaart.com | T: +44 (0) 161 273 5495