Amplify is partnering with the Community Bike Project of Omaha to host an open call for Exhi-BIKE-tion 2025.
About the Community Bike Project of Omaha
The Community Bike Project of Omaha is dedicated to creating a city in which all residents experience a high quality of life and thriving sense of personal agency as a result of universal access to bicycle ridership. It directly connects Omahans in need with bicycles to own, the space and tools to maintain their bikes, and the skills and knowledge to independently repair and safely ride their bikes to create an equitable, sustainable, healthy, safe, and joyful city.
About Exhi-BIKE-tion
Exhi-BIKE-tion is a curated community art show celebrating bicycles and cycling as modes of transportation, transformation, resistance, and release. Co-organized by Yuanjun Chen, and in the historic Joslyn Castle, the exhibition explores how biking shapes the way we move, connect, and imagine our lives from everyday commutes to childhood memories, critical mass rides to quiet moments in motion.
This event is also a fundraiser for The Community Bike Project of Omaha, the city’s only nonprofit dedicated to providing free access to bikes, tools, and cycling education for people of all ages. Exhi-BIKE-tion opens to the public Thusday, September 18th with a closing celebration to follow Friday, September 26th.
Omaha-area artists working in painting, drawing, photography, mixed media), zines, digital works, small sculpture, bike-modified objects, or functional bike-related art are invited to submit:
- Up to three works for consideration.
- A short artist statement that describes how their work relates to biking and the ways it shapes how we move, connect, and imagine our lives.
- A works cited page that lists the submitted work's title, date, medium, dimensions, and price.
- A one paragraph artist bio.
Submissions open Sunday, June 1st and close Thursday, July 31st at 11:59PM.
If selected to participate, artists must deliver their installation ready work to Joslyn Castle on Friday, September 12th between 8:30 AM and 5:30 PM. There is no fee to apply. If selected artists choose to sell their work, they will be asked to indicate the sale price and whether they would like to donate a portion the proceeds to the Community Bike Project of Omaha (optional but deeply appreciated).
About the Review Process
All Omaha-area artists working in working in painting, drawing, photography, mixed media), zines, digital works, small sculpture, bike-modified objects, or functional bike-related art are invited to submit their work. The exhibition organizer and members of the Community Bike Project of Omaha team will evaluate submissions and select work for the exhibition taking the following criteria into consideration:
- Is the work formally compelling in its use of line, color, texture, light and shadow, etc?
- Does the work enhance an understanding of the ways biking shapes how we move, connect, and imagine our lives?
- Does the work enhance diverse representational formats within the exhibition including painting, drawing, photography, mixed media), zines, digital works, small sculpture, bike-modified objects, or functional bike-related art?
Click here to view the full evaluation rubric.
Review Process Timeline
- June 1st: Submissions open
- July 31st, 11:59 PM: Submissions close
- August 1st - August 20th: Submission review
- August 22nd: Submission status updates delivered
*Amplify Arts staff do not evaluate applications but has partnered with the Community Bike Project of Omaha to accept submissions through Submittable, our application management platform.
Privacy
All personal information provided in this application is limited to the application review and selection processes associated with the Community Bike Project | Exhi-BIKE-tion 2025 open call.
About the Exhibition Organizer
Yuanjun Chen (Jun) is a Cantonese interdisciplinary artist, born and raised in Guangzhou, China, in 1996 to artist parents Yi Chen and Yulan Zhou. In 2019, he moved to Omaha to study at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and graduated in 2023 with a concentration in printmaking.
Since high school, Jun has been passionate about photography. His photography can be found on Instagram under the handle @Suicide_Eggs. He also enjoys drawing on paper occasionally, and often uses his own photography as a reference.
Jun’s collaborative work often integrates writing and photography to explore themes of mobility justice, systemic inequities, and the experiences of marginalized and underrepresented communities. His projects aim to offer fresh perspectives, encourage dialogue, and bridge cultural understanding.
Quarantine Calendar Project, 2020-2022—Jun’s last collaborative work. A visual archive of life during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Comprising over 1,000 photographs from 19 participants across five countries, the project brings together diverse perspectives through a shared lens. Each participant contributed one image per day, capturing moments of isolation, resilience, and the intimate realities of a world in lockdown.
About Amplify Arts
Amplify provides resources for artists, organizers, and cultural workers to incubate liberatory ideas that move our community forward.