The Art of Snail Mail
Artist Karen Mainenti
Snail mail is becoming so obsolete it’s starting to seem like a fine art form. At least, that’s the premise behind You’ve Got Mail, an upcoming show at Park Slope’s Ground Floor Gallery, which will exhibit any and all 4×6” art submissions mailed in by the July 17th deadline. So if you so much as know how to mail a letter, you can have your artwork displayed and potentially sold at a Brooklyn gallery.
“We usually curate smaller group exhibitions featuring artists from the Brooklyn area. It’s typically hyper-local,” Krista Scenna, a founder and curator at Ground Floor Gallery, says. “But summer is a great time for us to bend the rules of normal gallery operations. We thought, wouldn’t it be interesting and fun and scary to hang every piece that came in?” As Park Slope’s only commercial gallery space, Ground Floor’s mission is usually to connect Brooklyn-based artists to new art buyers. “This show is giving us a chance to show artists that aren’t just from Brooklyn,” Scenna says.
Artsit Emily May Rose
So far, the 100 submissions they’ve received include a photomontage of a 50s pin-up girl censored with an image of marshmallow peeps; a tiny portrait made from wire, sent in from France; and watercolors from Hawaii. All pieces will be sold for $50, giving even amateur artists the opportunity to profit from their work and connect with collectors.
“The snail-mail thing is an analog throwback,” Scenna says. “We don’t get a lot of mail we actually want anymore. We usually screen gallery submissions online, but we’re not accepting anything by email.”
Artist Rob Jelinski
If you draw, paint, or take photographs (or even if you don’t, but want to be featured in an art show), and still know how to put a stamp on an envelope and put it in a mailbox, submit your 4×6 work to the gallery for a chance at art world glory. Full submission guidelines are here.
You’ve Got Mail will run from July 22 – August 16, 2015 at Ground Floor Gallery in Park Slope.
