(UN)FAIR
FIRST
OPEN CALL
(UN)FAIR
FIRST EDITION
16 FEBRUARY - 15 MARCH 2026
CAPACITY: 8 ARTISTS
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 31 JANUARY 2026
DOWNLOAD: PROJECT FEATURES
Hands-on is pleased to present (UN)FAIR, a hybrid curatorial initiative that reimagines the traditional art fair model. Rethinking conventional booth-based formats, the fair unfolds within artists’ studios, curated collaboratively with Hands-on around the thematic framework of the fair’s inaugural edition. The studios serve as hybrid exhibition spaces, accessible both online and by appointment, allowing artists to present their work directly and engage in dialogue with the public.
Taking place from 16 February to 15 March 2026, (UN)FAIR provides independent artists with an accessible and affordable platform designed to respond to current challenges in the art industry. By offering a fresh yet professional opportunity that extends beyond geographical and market constraints, (UN)FAIR fosters international collaborations, community building, and meaningful engagement between artists and a wider audience.
The fair is complemented by an online public programme of talks and conversations, involving all participating artists.
The curatorial concept for the 2026 edition of (UN)FAIR is INTERSECTIONS.
In a contemporary landscape shaped by constant movement, overlap, and acceleration, intersections have become defining sites of meaning. Artistic practice today rarely exists in isolation; it unfolds at the crossing of disciplines, contexts, technologies, and lived experiences. Intersections acknowledges these points of convergence as spaces where complexity is not resolved, but held.
Rather than fixed positions or singular narratives, intersections invite multiplicity. They ask us to consider how ideas, materials, identities, and methodologies meet, diverge, and transform one another. In these encounters, artistic practice becomes relational- formed through exchange, negotiation, and attention to what emerges between positions rather than within them.
For (UN)FAIR, Intersections operates as both a curatorial framework and a mode of engagement. Situated within artists’ studios and extended through hybrid formats, the theme foregrounds practices that move across boundaries- between media and disciplines, physical and digital space, private process and public encounter. It invites artists to reflect on how their work is shaped by these crossings, and how meaning is produced through relation rather than singular authorship.