Currently,  the Downtown Nanaimo Gallery is featuring 2012 Mayworks Festival of Labour and the Arts: Mail Art Exhibition until May 22, 2012. What is mail art? It is art sent through the mail.

Artists from 25 countries have mailed postcard sized art to the curator, Ed Varney of Courtenay, on the theme of “Hard Work – Work & Labour.” There are 125 artists from around the world who have mailed in their art and the artworks feature painting, printmaking, drawing, collage, photography and other media.

From rayjohnson.org:

“Mail art began in New York in the 1950s by art professor Ray Johnson and was seen as one of the new “communication arts”, a form of media aesthetics that evolved alongside video art.  It is in this precise sense that mail art could be said to only have “a present” – a present of communicational events, of uncontrollable exchanges, of things arriving and departing at unforeseen times and places, thanks to the medium of postal system, which, just like television, could be seen to distribute “signals” across the boundaries of time and space.”

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Have you taken a walk around the Nanaimo waterfront? You will have noticed a number of outdoor art sculptures. You can bid on any of these art works.

The Nanaimo Art Gallery’s Public Art Partnership with the City of Nanaimo began its 2nd year of outdoor artworks. The City of Nanaimo crews installed six public art pieces at Maffeo Sutton Park, one at McGregor Park, and an eighth at the recently renovated Beban Park Social Centre. The work will be on display until April 2012 and all of the pieces can be bid on at the on-line auction at the Nanaimo Art Gallery website.  The auction proceeds will benefit the Nanaimo Art Gallery and the City’s temporary art project fund.

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“Art for Wildlife Exhibition and Silent Auction” at the Nanaimo Art Gallery, is on now until March 24, 2012 at 150 Commercial Street. This is a show of nature and wildlife art prints, paintings, sculpture and wildlife photography.

All pieces are up for bidding during the silent auction that runs the length of the show.
Proceeds will be split between the Nanaimo Art Gallery and North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre.

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Calling all outdoor artists! Nanaimo wants you.

The City of Nanaimo and the Nanaimo Art Gallery are seeking both large and small scale temporary public art pieces to be installed in high profile locations such as Maffeo Sutton Park and McGregor Park Plaza from May 2012 to April 2013.

Closing date for proposals is Friday, January 13, 2012, 2pm PST.

A non-mandatory information meeting will be held:
Thursday, December 8, 2011 from  5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Location: Nanaimo Art Gallery, 150 Commercial Street, Nanaimo, B.C.

Expression of Interest documents are available at the City of Nanaimo under Bid Opportunities. Go there for all the details.

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A new art show opens at The Nanaimo Art Gallery called, “Visions of Rural China – Huxian Collection” by various artists. The Huxian paintings are all gouache watercolours on paper. The art show will run from August 29th to November 5th, 2011.

The opening reception will be held Friday, September 9th from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm, at the   Campus Gallery – 900 Fifth Street, Entrance 5D. Everyone is welcome.

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