International Mail Art Exhibition and Fundraiser

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About

Collecting and Reassembling

Exhibition: September 9 - November 5, 2023

Online Auction: November 5 - 30, 2023

Exhibition Coordinator: Kathy Tycholis

Artists from all over the world have contributed postcard-size artworks for the 2023 Mail Art Exhibition and Fundraiser. Organized in tandem with the exhibition Sonja Ahlers: Classification Crisis, this open-call exhibition invited artists to mail in one original piece of artwork in response to the theme of “collecting and reassembling.”

Also known as postal art and correspondence art, mail art is an artistic movement centered on sending and sharing small-scale works through the postal service. Based on the principles of equal, one-to-one collaboration between artists, mail art has become a worldwide cultural movement for artists to share visual art, poetry, or any other artistic form through the postal system.

Through the 2000s, Richmond Art Gallery hosted regular mail art and artist trading card exhibitions that over time included thousands of artists from all over the world. Given Sonja Ahlers’ engagement with mail art and mixed tape exchanges throughout her career, it seemed fitting to revive the Mail Art Exhibition at the Richmond Art Gallery, ten years after the last one in 2013.

To continue the democratic tradition of this art form, all mailed-in entries the gallery received are featured in this exhibition. Once the exhibition in the Gallery closes, these artworks will be auctioned off to raise funds in support of our public programs.

Links

• Richmond Art Gallery website richmondartgallery.org

Organizer

Richmond Art Gallery

Richmond Art Gallery (RAG) is a non-profit municipal art gallery established in 1980. The gallery produces an array of exhibitions and programs that connect, empower, and provoke conversation with our diverse Richmond, BC communities. RAG actively contributes to Richmond’s cultural communities through our commitment to supporting artists via exhibitions, educational programs, publications, and a permanent collection.

Richmond Art Gallery is dedicated to promoting dialogue among diverse communities on challenging ideas and issues of today as expressed through local, national and international contemporary art. Through its exhibitions, publications, educational programming, collections and significant partnerships, the Richmond Art Gallery provides opportunities for the enhancement of life in Richmond while serving the contemporary arts community in Canada.

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