Strip Mall Magazine: Visual Art Submissions
Overview
Strip Mall Magazine is a publication that positions itself within the lineage of independent art journals—venues where visual and textual practices converge without the constraints of commercial galleries or mainstream art press. The magazine's name suggests an interest in the vernacular, the overlooked, and the spaces where commerce and creativity meet without pretense. This call for visual art submissions signals an editorial vision that values work engaging with the aesthetics of the everyday, the suburban, the marginal, or the interstitial. The submission guidelines are deliberately minimal: up to five high-quality JPEGs, each accompanied by a title. This economy of means places the burden of communication on the images themselves, not on artist statements or biographical narratives. The absence of a fee aligns with a growing movement among independent publishers to remove economic barriers to entry, though it also implies a lean operation where editorial decisions are made on the strength of the work alone. What artists receive is not specified in the provided facts—no honorarium, contributor copies, or prize is mentioned. This is not unusual for small-circulation literary and art magazines, where publication itself is often the primary currency. The curatorial vision, inferred from the magazine's title and the call's brevity, favors work that is conceptually sharp, visually resolved, and unafraid of the mundane or the commercial landscape as subject matter. Artists should consider whether their practice resonates with an editorial sensibility that prizes clarity, wit, and a certain democratic approach to image-making.