The Propagating Culturally Distracting
MEMES
An Online Feature of Selected Works
Juror: Cinders McLeod
DEADLINE: Monday, December 7, 2026
The meme started out as Richard Dawkins’s word for an idea that copies itself from mind to mind. It has since become the basic unit of contemporary culture, and a verb. Politics gets memed. Grief gets memed. Art history gets memed, usually faster than it gets taught. The meme-fication of the world is now so complete that we hardly notice it. A format jumps from a phone screen to a protest sign to a gallery wall to a T-shirt, and picks up new meaning at every stop.
Memes are funny. Memes are resonant. They work through a double move. They familiarize, handing us a form we recognize instantly. They also defamiliarize, filling that form with something absurd enough to make us see it fresh. This is one of the oldest tricks in art, which is not a coincidence.
MEMES 2026 invites contemporary artists from across Canada to submit original work that makes, remakes, questions, adds humour or sincerely loves the meme. Work may be in any medium, including painting, drawing, collage, photography, sculpture, textile, print, or digital. However, all entries must be submitted as a digital image file that can be included in the online exhibition.
This online exhibition showcases artists working with, through, and against the meme. All mediums are welcome. Best in Show receives $100 and an invitation to the Aird Gallery’s annual 2027 luncheon, and two shared second prizes of $50 will also be awarded. Winners will be featured online alongside the full exhibition.
JUROR
Cinders McLeod is a Toronto-born cartoonist, author, and illustrator, and has worked in the meme’s oldest ancestor, the political cartoon, for more than three decades. She spent the 1990s cartooning for the British press, including The Guardian, The Observer, and The Independent. Her social-comment strip Broomie Law ran in the Herald in Glasgow and was collected in book form in 2000. Returning to Canada, she worked as editorial cartoonist and art director at The Globe and Mail, winning a National Newspaper Award and a gold Society for News Design award. She is the author-illustrator of the Moneybunny books (Penguin Random House) and a recorded singer-songwriter-double bassist on Billy Bragg’s label. McLeod’s latest solo show, DRAWS THE LINE, at The Arts & Letters Club of Toronto, traces how her work, published in the Herald, influenced some of Banksy’s better known pieces.
ENTRY FEE
The entry fee is $35 and includes submission of up to two (2) works per artist. Fees are non-refundable and are paid at the time of application. Proceeds help make this exhibition possible.
SALES
Artists will be notified and responsible for any sale of their artwork. The Gallery requests a 30% commission/donation on all sales.
Exhibition Terms and Conditions
Our call for entries is a juried exhibition, and the Gallery reserves the right to make final selections. The juror reviews every submission received. However, because of the volume, the Gallery can only respond to artists whose work is accepted. Once the juror(s) make their selections, artists will be required to provide corrections and high-resolution images.
APPLICATION DETAILS
- Artists can submit up to two works.
- Image files must be as follows:
- File names must be labelled Last Name_First Name, Title.jpg
- Example: Smith_Jane, Morning Doves.jpg
- Images can be in jpeg/jpg/png format.
- Image resolution should be 150 dpi max
- File size cannot exceed 4MB
- Submit original works only.
- Please note that improperly named files may not be recorded or will be lost in our system.