From the gallery's outset, I've been looking for ways to support a wider group of artists beyond our main program, and this open call is the fullest expression of that intention so far. It also feels like the right moment to explain how I arrived here, because the path was an unconventional one. I didn't go to art school, nor did I work at another gallery before opening Francis in 2018. What I knew, I had learned through lived experience: seeking out exhibitions wherever I could, poring over monographs and catalogues, visiting artists in their studios — I also had the chance to interview a number of them during my years as an editor — and eventually acquiring works for myself, a process through which I began to think curatorially. The result of this haphazard, self-initiated education is an openness that I've come to regard as central to Francis's ethos.