We live in an age of mirrors. Our faces unlock our phones.
Our reflections flicker endlessly across screens — filtered, retouched, perfected, repeated. AI influencers smile without ever having lived. Muscles and lips and jawlines are sculpted, trained, augmented into new ideals. Beauty has become both a currency and a curse.
The self-portrait, once a centuries-old act of artistic self-inquiry, now returns with new urgency. Who are we? — when every image and thought of ourselves can be rewritten, when every imperfection can be erased, when every likeness can be optimized?
Can we still look at ourselves with honesty, curiosity, even love?
To paint oneself, to draw oneself: it is to enter the quiet dialogue between what we are and what we wish to be seen as. Between creation and critique. Artists know how easily love for one’s work can turn into judgment.
Before the world, there was the mirror. Before the subject, there was the self.
In the flow of infinite images, we return to this simple, ancient gesture: the artist facing themselves.
In 2026, Bushy Pony invites artists to reclaim the image. To show not the most beautiful, but the most true vision of the self.
The Deadline for the Open Call was the 6th of February 2026.
571 works have been submitted.
A selection of works will be shown in the Bushy Pony premises, Dieffenbachstr. 38, 10967 Berlin.
Vernissage: 07.03.2026. Tickets available here.
Finissage: 25.04.2026 with the Bushy Pony Immersive Performance
Regular opening hours: Wednesday to Saturday 12am-7pm