On Display February 16 – April 14, 2026

Awards will be announced on March 2, 2026

Virtual Gallery    View the Artwork    Participating Artists
Awards   Watch the Juror Talk

Introducing In The City

Skylines, crosswalks, alleyways and shops; bright lights, buses, taxis and crowds. These are just a small list of elements that create the essence of an urban environment. Some aspects of city life are universal and can represent any city, anywhere, from a large metropolis to a small town. Every city as well, has unique symbols and iconic places that signify the identity of the community, such as restaurants, festivals, music halls and graffiti. We welcome all artists to submit original work that gives us the sense of your urban experience. Whether you are an urbanite or a city visitor, give us a visual story of the city. Any original 2D or 3D work that follows our exhibition guidelines will be considered. Works selected by the Juror will be exhibited in Maryland Federation of Art’s (MFA) second In the City Exhibition in our Virtual Gallery from February 16 – April 14, 2026.

Click this icon to view and print the downloadable prospectus.

Juror: Michael Dowley: Professor in the Studio Art department at Georgetown University

Michael Dowley lives and works in his native Northern Virginia. He has shown his art locally and nationally, including at Arlington Arts Center, Doris Mae, Art at Kings Oaks (PA), Blue Spiral (NC), Atlantic Gallery (NYC) and the Phillips Collection, Washington DC. His work has been selected for exhibition by William Bailey, Yale University, and Joan Young, Guggenheim Museum and Matthew Higgs, White Columns Art Registry. He was the recipient of a residency grant from Vermont Studio Center and from Art Week, Anina Porter, Fairfield Porter residency, Maine. He received his MFA in painting from Savannah College of Art and Design and his BA from Georgetown University. He is professor of painting and drawing at Northern Virginia Community College and a lecturer in Studio Art at Georgetown University.

Juror’s Statement

The work in this show exemplifies the exuberance and passion that people have for their cities and the interest they have in showing it in its many aspects and dimensions. It was very difficult to sort through and assign winners, as each artwork contained obvious care and excitement for the subject matter. I offer my praise to all artists who took the bold step of entering their pieces in the show!

Looking through the artworks indeed felt like spending a day meandering through a busy and vibrant city, with many crowds, night lights, walkways, graffiti, and modes of transportation. Shown were examples of the unkempt grittiness of the streets alongside the neatly apportioned geometry of the constructed landscape. While some artists focused on the contemporary city, including obvious references to our present day, others looked to the past, to show us the layered structures or remnants that provided the foundation for what we currently see.

Many entries focused in on people, whether including large crowds seen from above or aimed their focus on a single individual. In both cases, the artwork made it clear how universal our experiences of communal living are.

Other artists distanced themselves even farther, taking architectural approaches and focusing instead on the complex physical structures that form the idiosyncratic and at times beloved spaces that we’ve come to characterize our cities.

Defining and depicting today’s contemporary urban landscape was a particular challenge as so much of our divisive political focus occurs in cities. Several artworks documented events, protests and military presences that have recently come to define our contemporary urban landscape. These artworks remind us of the important function of our cities as places of gathering and dialogue.

While all the artworks merit careful looking, the artworks to which I assigned prizes, in the end, I believe, conveyed their stories in ways that deepened our understanding of what cities represent, without resorting to commonly used motifs. I aimed to give credit to those artists, who, within their mediums, found original visual ways of expressing, and offered us fresh perspectives.

-Michael Dowley

Awards

Best in Show

  • Urban Safari and Security Presence, Stefanie Boss

Juror’s Choice Awards:

  • Paul on the Subway, Katharine Owens
  • The City is Still Within Me, Sabiyha Prince
  • The Final Crossing, Jayne Bentley Gaskins

Honorable Mentions:

  • The City, David Bookbinder
  • Spiderenbt, Addison Newton Likins
  • E96scape No. 2, Steve Ember
  • Urban Landscape to the Max, Judy Guenther

Exhibition Schedule

  • Oct 14 Online Entry Opens for Submissions
  • Dec 17 Entry Deadline
  • Jan 29 Notification @ 5 PM
  • Feb 16 Exhibition Opens Online
  • Mar 2 Awards Announced @5 PM
  • Apr 14 Last Day of the Exhibition
General Guidelines

Notification

All entrants will receive notification by email. Accepted artists will also be posted on MFA’s website. Artists who have unsubscribed from MFA emails will not receive notification. The notice to accepted artists will include specific details and could vary from the prospectus. Please set your email account to recognize eleanor@mdfedart.org and info@mdfedart.org. Contact Circle Gallery if you do not receive notice by 6 PM on the day of notification.