Mail Art Olympix Exhibition Opening

Mail Art Olympix

Exhibition Organized by Ed Varney

OPENING FRIDAY JULY 16TH 7:00 AT IMA PUBLIC GALLERY

Ed Varney became interested in exchanging art through the postal system in the early 1970s. A loose network of artists began to use these exchanges as an important part of their art strategy –disseminating both personal and political ideas, arranging exhibitions which included each other’s work, and producing publications. This web of associations became known as the Mail Art Network and was a networking precursor of the internet.

As well as exchanging art and publications via the postal system,Varney has organized over a dozen Mail Art exhibitions. With the approaching 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, he felt this would be a great opportunity to stage an art event which paralleled the Olympics but which was completely egalitarian and based on co-operation rather than competition.

Beginning in early 2009, he sent out invitations to about 250 artists on his mailing lists and distributed the invitation through arts journals and the internet. He received work from over 350 artists representing 41 countries, much of it in colourfully decorated envelopes.

Varney hopes that other artists and arts animators in other countries where the Olympics will be held in the future will create variations on the Mail Art Olympix to allow artists to participate in what has become a closed and elitist spectacle.

Island Mountain Arts Public Gallery is pleased to host this formidible collection of Mail Art.  We hope to see you at the Opening Friday July 16th for some lively discussion!