Mail Art Exhibition carries on Ray Johnson creative line: Artist Riitta Ikonen, Scandinavia House Mail Art exhibition/demonstration Sat March 7, 2026 New York City.

Hi All FineArtMagazine Blog readers, it energized my day to read of  artist Riitta Ikonen, Scandinavia House Mail Art exhibition/demonstration Sat March 7, 2026  New York City. IN 1978  Ray Johnson knocked on my door early one morning to discuss fax art his new evolution of mail. What was so startling was I did not know Ray, he just showed up. Ray explained he would be famous one day and any faxed art would receive would be valuable. We agreed I would write up a small article, I think Ray was displaying at the Cuntry Art Gallery, Locust Valley, Chris Watson, co-owner and Director was a friend of mine. My focus on the value of art and it's creative energy not the value to come.  We continued our art dialogues until I moved form Bayville, on Long Island  about two  years later. Ray faxed or  mailed our offices his art correspondence for several years after that. Ray Johnson was one of the originator/founder of mail art . Below Riitta Ikonen captures the same vitality and energy in her mail art series featured at the Finnish Postal  Museum and Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue. The life of Ray's idea continues to inspire art energy as a valued form of communication. Jamie Forbes, Publisher SunStorm Fine Art Magazine, and Fineartmagazineblog.bogspot where we feature the joy of art creativity.

The Nordic Center in America 58 Park Ave, NYC     View in browser View full schedule Scandinaviahouse.org Facebook Visit About Membership Food Shop Support   MAIL ART SERIES WITH RIITTA IKONEN ARTIST WORKSHOP The acclaimed Finnish artist introduces participants to the practice of mail art alongside a special collaboration with the Finnish Postal Museum.  New York, NY—Beginning Saturday, March 7, Scandinavia House is thrilled to present a special series of full-day Mail Art Workshops with acclaimed Finnish artist Riitta Ikonen! The series will also feature a special exhibition collaboration with the Finnish Postal Museum in Tampere.  Held as full-day sessions on Saturdays, March 7, 21, and 28, this hands-on workshop introduces participants to the practice of mail art as a collaborative and time-based artistic process involving sender, postal system, and receiver. Led by acclaimed Finnish artist Riitta Ikonen ahead of her exhibition at the American Swedish Institute this June, the workshop invites participants to work with everyday materials and found ephemera to create postcard-sized artworks intended for mailing. During each full-day session (10:00 AM–4:00 PM, with a 30–45 minute lunch break), participants will receive an introduction to the history and contemporary contexts of mail art, followed by guided studio time. Each participant will create up to three postcards, including one work to be sent to the Finnish Postal Museum as part of a dedicated exhibition documenting the journey of the artworks from New York to Finland. In advance of the workshop, participants will be invited to collect a hand-created mail art postcard by Riitta Ikonen from a designated “mailbox” at Scandinavia House. The postcard provides conceptual prompts and practical guidance for observing and gathering materials from daily life, offering participants the opportunity to experience mail art as recipients prior to making their own works. ABOUT THE ARTIST Originally from the deep forests of eastern Finland, Riitta Ikonen works through performance, wearable sculptures, participatory performances and mail art. After completing her MA at the Royal College of Art in London in 2008, she has exhibited internationally holding shows at the Barbican Centre, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Peabody Essex Museum and the London- and Pyeongchang Olympics. Ikonen lectures at schools and universities and advocates for interdisciplinary collaboration for actionable change. Scandinavia House 58 Park Avenue New York, NY 10016 212–779–3587 scandinaviahouse.org @ScanHouse #scandinaviagouseart#mailartrayjohnson#fineartmagazineblogblogspot#sunstormfornartmagazine

Capitalism, but make it Art; Development, but make it Satire

Two weeks into his ARTS 14C Special Project residency, Lorel Hill is building a company. Not a real one.  A fake one. But also…kind of real. Lorel is a sculptor who makes mini dioramas — intricate miniature landscapes inspired by what he calls “degenerate places”: post-industrial lots, under-highway forests, abandoned buildings at the edge of cities.  The kinds of spaces where foxes, bats, graffiti artists, teenagers, and runoff water all coexist.  The kinds of spaces that feel more alive than a manicured state park. Lorel Hill, Danger, Large Rats 48 in x 36 in x 18 in, 2025 His practice has long been about the collision of infrastructure and wilderness — from canoeing the polluted Hackensack River to exploring abandoned buildings in Berlin during the pandemic.  Last year, he recreated sites around the Meadowlands — liminal zones that have resisted development for centuries — imagining mutant rats, state task forces, poison barrels, and collapsing infrastructure co-existing within the landscape. Now, in his Special Project residency, the work has shifted. Instead of just observing these “degenerate spaces,” Lorel is asking: What would it look like to intervene? Lorel Hill's Sketchbook  Enter PoND Ventures LLC — short for Productivity of Natural Degeneration — a fictional development company headquartered inside the largest mini diorama he’s ever built. The site is inspired by a real boarded-up industrial building in Jersey City’s Communipaw neighborhood, wedged between luxury condos and empty lots. In Lorel’s version, the building becomes part community orchard, part swimming pond, part ecological reclamation hub. The top floors? Corporate headquarters. But here’s the twist: Even a “good” company, operating inside our economy, has to answer to the laws of the market. So PoND is both hopeful and unsettling. It proposes real ecological repair while satirizing the fact that any redevelopment effort is trapped inside market logic. Can you heal land and build community if you still have investors to answer to? Letterhead from Lorel's Special Project Application To push the idea further, Lorel is expanding beyond sculpture. He’s designing a wearable “field uniform” for PoND employees (himself included), blending hiking gear, urban fashion, and recycled materials. He’ll perform as a company rep during ARTS 14C's Open Studio events — pitching PoND’s first product line: urban enhancement pills. Think gas-station supplement marketing, but for ecological adaptation. Capsules that grow climbing nails. Skunk balm to evade surveillance. Buoyancy boosts for polluted water. Lorel Hill, Dream Mound 27 in x 30 in x 20 in, 2025 It’s funny. It’s absurd. It’s a little grifty.  And it asks a real question: Can you fix a broken landscape using the same systems that broke it? Come visit PoND's headquarters on March 15th, at 157B 1st St, along with the other artists in our Spring 2026 Special Project cohort. If you want to keep up with Lorel's practice, you can find updates on his website. See you next week! The Team at 14C   Want to become a Project 14C resident? Four applications are currently open: 12-month, Special Project, Teacher Residency, and our Semiquinticennial Fabric + Textile Residency. Application + Info ARTS 14C - 157B 1st St - 4-6th fls Facilities tour - March 5, 1pm Facilities tour - March 12, 1pm Deadline to apply for 12-month residency: March 9, 11:59pm Open studios: March 15, Gallery 14C - 157A 1st St, 2nd fl Art (Official) Intelligence - February 19 - April 2, 2026 Open hours - February 28, 1-4pm Open hours - March 1, 1-4pm Pop-Up Art Market feat. a Dance DJ Set by Gummi Bäron - Mar 6, 6-9pm Click here to share or view as webpage arts14c.org info@arts14c.org

Lew Allen Galleries opens Katherines Poeter :Paper Works, February 27, 2026

Opening Today, Friday, February 27th, 2026 KATHERINE PORTER: Paper Works KATHERINE PORTER: Paper Works Opening Today, Friday, February 27th, 2026 The paintings and works on paper created by Katherine Porter (1941-2024) stand as one of the significant bodies of work in American Color Abstraction. Her place as one of its most distinguished women practitioners is marked by a remarkable career spanning nearly six decades. Her paintings and works on paper are held within the permanent collections of more than forty important national and international museums.   Her works on paper channel the complexities of her times into signal expressions resulting in high-energy oils and mixed media – pulsating with vibrant kinetic energy and employing a unique visual vocabulary: equal parts geometric, chromatic, and gestural. The noted late art historian Lydia Csato Gasman once described Porter's output as "the vast domain of spontaneity untamed." The artist took chaos and, through a remarkable capacity for creative spontaneity, transformed the subject into sheer brilliance. The expression demonstrates a rare virtuosity of creative freedom blended with technical discipline. The work serves as her personal cri de coeur, cry of the heart, for a better world.    View Exhibition

OTHER EXHIBITIONS NOW ON VIEW HERMAN MARIL Legacy of an American Modernist View Exhibition FORREST MOSES The Artful Heart View Exhibition

ANIMATION: Katherine Porter, Global Warming, 2000, oil on paper, 29.5 x 25 in Katherine Porter, Kingdom (detail), 1997-98, mixed media on paper, 45.5 x 42.5 in  Katherine Porter, Untitled (detail), 1977, mixed media on paper, 20.5 x 27.75 in     EXHIBITIONS: Herman Maril, Kendall Lane Beach / Cape Beach (detail), 1976, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in Forrest, Moses, A Bit of Stream, 2012, oil on canvas, 50 x 52 in   ©2026 LewAllen Galleries | Artwork ©The Estates of the artists pictured

LewAllen Galleries 1613 Paseo de Peralta Santa Fe, NM 87501 505.988.3250 Mon - Fri  10 - 6 / Sat 10 - 5