dear so-and-so: a pen pals art show, 2019
Dear So-and-So celebrates artistic collaboration in an innovative way. Co-curated with Helen Popinchalk, we selected a group of artists working in a variety of mediums to be a part of the Dear So-and-So experiment. Invited artists were asked to choose a partner to be their pen pal and work together in a call and response manner. For example, one person begins a collection of new work and then turns it over to their partner, trusting them to build upon it. Ideally, the exchange would occur at least three times over the course of one year.
Helen and I initially concocted the idea as a way to collaborate with each other. Suspecting that other artists might be intrigued by the creative prompt, outreach began and Dear So-and-So was born. Twelve artist pairs worked back and forth, documenting each step as their works progressed. Some partners were located across town from one another while others were in a long-distance creative relationship.
Dear So-and-So debuted at the Distillery Gallery in South Boston, Massachusetts. It featured the finished collaborations between each artist duo. Below are the results of my collaboration with Helen. Continue scrolling for exhibition photos and the complete list of artist pen pals.
exhibition photos
The 12 artist pairs who participated in the first iteration of Dear So-and-So were:
Allison Tanenhaus & David Bojay
Andy Li & Chelsea Lyons Teta
Cicely Carew & Tolani Lawrence-Lightfoot
Cyrille Conan & Kenji Nakayama
David Borden & Christian Borden (aka The Borden Boys)
Jack Kohler Byers & HAMER ONE
Jay LaCouture & John Rainis
Jennifer Lamontagne & Bri Custer
Joe Banda & Jake Cassevoy
John Skibo & Chloe Reison
Mary Lewey & Helen Popinchalk
Sarah Trahan & Andrew Sliwinski
Tim Hansen & Conny Goelz Schmitt
