Mid-Atlantic New Painting 2026

UMW Galleries is now accepting submissions for our upcoming juried exhibition, the 2026 Mid-Atlantic New Painting Biennial. This biannual celebration of contemporary painting showcases artists from Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Begun in 1997, MANP is celebrating its thirteenth biennial of contemporary painting organized by the University of Mary Washington. Guest juror Alexis Assam, Regenia A. Perry Assistant Curator of Global Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, will select the artwork and winners for multiple prizes. One artwork will be selected for the UMW Collections Purchase Award, to be added to the UMW Galleries Collection.

UMW Galleries is now accepting submissions for our upcoming juried exhibition, the 2026 Mid-Atlantic New Painting Biennial. This biannual celebration of contemporary painting showcases artists from Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Begun in 1997, MANP is celebrating its thirteenth iteration.

This year’s juror is Guest juror Alexis Assam, Regenia A. Perry Assistant Curator of Global Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Assam joined the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 2021. She is co-curator of the exhibition Pop to Present: American Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  Assam was the coordinating curator of the Richmond presentation of Whitfield Lovell: Passages (2023). Prior to the VMFA, she worked at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as the Constance E. Clayton Curatorial Fellow (2019-2021) where she played an integral role in the Philadelphia presentation of Senga Nengudi: Topologies (2021). Before her time in Philadelphia, Assam was the Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellow at the Saint Louis Art Museum (2018-2019), where she co-curated The Shape of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection (2019). Assam holds an MA in Art History and a BA in Art History from Florida State University.

The intention of the Mid-Atlantic New Painting exhibition is to highlight new developments in painting within our region. Awards include First, Second, and Third place awards decided by the juror ($1000, $500, $250); and a single Purchase Award decided by UMW representatives. Awards will be announced at the opening reception. This exhibition and awards are made possible by the generosity of Alfred Levitt. Levitt was a New York artist and intellectual with an abiding interest in encouraging painters.

Applications must include: 

• Images, title, dimensions, and material list for each entry (up to three)
• Brief artist's statement (no more than 150 words)

Open to artists 18 years of age and older who live in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.