SURREAL SALON 18 with SPECIAL GUEST JUROR SWOON COMING IN JANUARY

Surreal Salon - the annual international exhibition celebrating the pop-surrealist/lowbrow movement - returned to Baton Rouge Gallery (“BRG”) for its 17th year! The exhibition, held in partnership with the LSU School of Art, featured artists from across the globe, each hand-picked by the show’s Special Guest Juror, Swoon, via a blind jurying process.

For more than a decade, Surreal Salon has featured paintings, photography, ceramics, textiles, mixed media works, and more. Now we’re seeking artists worldwide to submit works for the show’s 18th edition and possibly add even more media to that list!

More than $2,000 in cash prizes was awarded to participating artists in conjunction with the exhibition and the artist whose work is selected as Best in Show is also be profiled in an online editorial by Juxtapoz.

ARTISTS: SUBMIT YOUR WORKS NOW TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THE EXHIBITION

View the call on cafe

Submission deadline: November 8, 2025

SURREAL SALON 18 SPECIAL GUEST JUROR: SWOON

Over the years, Surreal Salon has enlisted well-known and well-respected jurors for Surreal Salon – including internationally-renowned artists such as Ron English, Camille Rose Garcia, Marco Mazzoni, Beth Cavener, Elizabeth McGrath, Greg “Craola” Simkins, and many others - to assist in making Surreal Salon as artistically engaging as possible. That tradition is once again renewed with Swoon (Caledonia Curry) filling this role (thanks in part to a partnership with the Louisiana State University School of Art). She will personally curate the collection of works that will be included in the exhibition.

Caledonia Curry, aka Swoon, is a Brooklyn-based street artist. Drawing on both realistic and fantastical elements, she has been transforming the world with her immersive installations, wheat paste portraits, and community-based social justice projects for the last two decades. While Curry’s work has adorned the walls of more classical institutions - including New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and the Tate Modern – her overarching aim is to create accessible art that transports audiences while simultaneously shedding light on pressing social and environmental issues.

Swoon is best known as one of the first women street artists to gain international recognition. Curry’s deep consideration of form is inseparable from her vision of the transformative role of public art in communities. Her critical engagement with issues of social and environmental justice have positioned her at the forefront of the emergent discourse around socially-engaged practice. Her commitment to expanding the possibilities of art to repair trauma and foster personal and collective healing continues to drive her substantial contributions to contemporary art through experimentation with portraiture, sculpture, installation, and stop-motion animation.

THE SURREAL SALON SOIREE - JAN. 24, 2025

This one-of-a-kind night always expands the Surreal Salon exhibition to, in essence, include hundreds of works of art by way of the costumes YOU put together to help punctuate this unique exhibition!

In addition to the over five dozen works featured in the Surreal Salon exhibition, the big night includes live music, food trucks, and a number of other surprises.

Stay tuned for details on what to expect at the 2026 Surreal Salon Soiree!