Thursday, March 6, 2014

New ABAD 2014 Call: The Royal Cambrian Academy, Wales

A BOOK ABOUT DEATH was launched as an underground, global art project in September 2009 at the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in New York City, New York. It was conceived and curated by American artist Matthew Rose as an open, unbound book on the subject of death. Taking the name, A Book About Death from the artist Ray Johnson, Rose paid homage to the founder of mail art and at the same time offered artists to explore the theme of death through post card sized works in an edition of 500; thus the “book.”

The NYC exhibition was extremely well attended and set off a series of exhibitions around the world – ABAD – numbering thus far, 27, the most recent taking place in Australia in the Fall of 2013. With an archival set of the New York ABAD show (487 works) new exhibitions touch upon particular, local themes but draw from a growing and global well of artists. All exhibitions invite artists to mail in their works, usually in post card format.

The Royal Cambrian Academy ABAD Show in Wales will be the 28th ‘A Book about Death’ exhibition. Included will be the work from the original 2009 New York exhibition, as well as works from from ABAD Wales at MoMA Machynlleth. This show is being organized by Sonja Benskin Mesher, an artist that participated in the original show and also curated the 2010 show at the MoMA Wales.

Exhibition dates: October 18 to November 15, 2014

How to Enter:
Open call for art work from visual artists and writers etc to create a postcard size artwork 4 x 6 inches based on the theme of Death. All work will be exhibited and archived and the artwork will not be returned but become part of the project.

Please post your artwork to address below by 30th September 2014

Address work to:
Sonja Benskin Mesher
Y Stiwdio, Tynllan, Llanelltyd, Dolgellau, Gwynedd, LL40 2SU

Inquiries to sonja@sonja-benskin-mesher.com

Please send your works well-packed and write NO COMMERCIAL VALUE on the envelope. The organizers are not responsible for any damage during the transportation.
There is no participation fee and the work may be exhibited in the future.

An online “live” archive will record the work and other details of the exhibition as the works come in.


Opening of the NY International Bookart Biennial Featuring Our "ABAD: The Ties That Bind" Books

October 6, 2013 – The NY Bound International Bookart Biennial Opening was beautifully done. The installation was lovely, the harpist and the refreshments were excellent. The Museum was packed with people in the five different galleries that contained books from global artists. In fact, one of our ABAD: The Ties That Bind artists was in with her own book – Jussara Pires.

Here are photos of our installation and a copy of the information that was posted with the books. The info sheet contains a brief history of the original ABAD, the Ties that Bind Show, and also lists every artist that appears in the books.

This show will run until the end of 2013.

Click Here to download the Information Sheet.   (There are two files for you to choose from -- a jpg and a pdf.)

I am very proud that our two volumes were selected to be exhibited with such an amazing group of talented artists.