“Pandemonium: Postcards from the Edge“ on view at Chroma Projects Art Laboratory in Charlottesville, Virginia, October 1-29, 2021. It opens with an artist reception on Friday October 1st , 5:00-7:00 PM. The project invites artists to interpret what we have collectively been going through over the past months of turmoil while also showcasing their resiliency and adaptability.

 Co-curated by Deborah McLeod and Sarah Sargent, the exhibition features nearly 100 artists from across the country as well as Germany, Scotland and Canada. Distant notable artists in the show include Rebecca Allan, Nick Fahri, Kylie Heidenheimer, Blinn Jacobs, Tulsa Kinney, James Kienitz-Wilkins, Nancy Manter, Robert Stuart, and Julia von Eichel.

 “Pandemonium: Postcards from the Edge“ asks artists to take an ordinary U.S. Mail postcard and paint, draw or mark it in some way. The resulting missives can focus on the political, societal or public health events that have rocked our collective world since March 2020, or they can highlight an artist’s individual practice in isolation–how they coped and what they produced.

 Inspired by the Secret Postcard Auction of the Royal Academy in London, we chose postcards because they’re inexpensive, democratic, humble and extremely portable objects. Using them as a basis of a show allowed us to expand it to include more work from distant places. The postcards were intended to present a challenge to artists (including sculptors, photographers and filmmakers) who work in quite different media and scale, pushing them out of their comfort zones—a metaphor for how we have all been pushed out of our comfort zones during the pandemic. Using postcards also demonstrates support for the beleaguered United States Post Office.