Curated by Aaron Wilder, A Long Train: 250 Years of Hypocrisy is an online only exhibition hosted by Amos Eno Gallery on Artsy.net, from February 22 to April 4, 2026. This exhibition invites artists to engage critically with the Declaration of Independence as a historical document of selective freedom — one whose promises were unevenly distributed and whose consequences remain unfinished. 

Artists based anywhere in the U.S. are encouraged to apply to this exhibition through an Open Call. 

Deadline: February 8, 2025 

Fee: $35* (for up to 3 works) 

*Submission fees may be considered charitable donations and be tax deductible for the submitting artist. 

Exhibition Description

The Declaration of Independence claimed 'a long train of abuses and usurpations,' which its authors enumerated as grievances against their colonial overlord. 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of this Declaration. This exhibition does not commemorate independence as a completed achievement. Instead, it interrogates the Declaration as a historical document of selective freedom—one that promised liberty while authorizing dispossession, slavery, and exclusion. The Declaration proclaims universal ideals while emerging from—and helping to entrench—systems of slavery, settler colonialism, racial hierarchy, and gendered exclusion. Its language condemns “abuses and usurpations” even as it legitimizes the dispossession of Indigenous peoples, the enslavement of Africans, and the political erasure of women. 

A Long Train: 250 Years of Hypocrisy asks who was included, who was erased, and what freedoms remain incomplete; and explores how colonial language, property, and sovereignty shaped—and continue to shape—systems of value, belonging, and authority. Rather than treating the Declaration as a fixed historical document, this exhibition approaches it as an ongoing structure, one that has enabled colonial expansion, racialized violence, gendered exclusion, and capitalist exploitation, even as it has been rhetorically expanded to claim broader inclusion. 

Platform & Economic Disclosure 

This exhibition will be presented on the Artsy.net profile of Amos Eno Gallery, a nonprofit, artist co-op. Artsy requires that all exhibited works be listed for sale, and standard submission and platform commissions apply. Rather than masking this reality, the exhibition foregrounds the market as part of the historical systems it critiques: just as independence was bound up with property, capital, and exclusion, this exhibition circulates within contemporary systems of cultural and economic value. By making these tensions legible—between celebration and critique, commerce and complicity, freedom and exclusion— the exhibition positions itself as intervention, reflection, and dialogue, rather than spectacle. Participation in the market is not framed as virtue; engagement with history and language is. 

The $35 submission fee supports administrative costs, jurying, platform fees, and the operational sustainability of the gallery. If sold, artworks are subject to a 20% gallery commission and a 19% Artsy commission. Artists receive 61% of sales. Submission fees and sales commissions support the operational survival of the gallery. These economic structures are acknowledged as part of the broader systems of value, property, and circulation that this exhibition critically examines. Participation does not imply endorsement of these systems. A Long Train: 250 Years of Hypocrisy illuminates the unfinished project of independence and viewers are invited to consider the legacies we inherit, the exclusions we perpetuate, and the possibilities we have yet to realize. 

How to Submit 

To submit to this Open Call, please fill out the application and submit image(s) of work through Jotform, where you will find a full explanation of the requirements. 

All forms of media will be considered as long as they have a material form (purely digital media with no physical form, for example, do not meet the Artsy requirement that exhibited works be for sale). Artists based anywhere in the U.S. are encouraged to apply. 

Artworks will be posted and sold on Artsy.net in a special curated exhibit.

Submissions must be accompanied by a statement (500 words maximum) describing how the submitted work(s) relate to the A Long Train: 250 Years of Hypocrisy exhibition description. 

For questions or more information, please reach out to: amosenogallerysubmissions@gmail.com.