It's Gettin' Sticky 🩹
Better bring a mop this Saturday
Hey all! Shua and Nate here—just popping into your inboxes to mention that this Saturday, we’re hosting an art show at our studio in Chicago.
The only catch? The artists' canvas is...a sticky note.
So, why are we doing this? Three reasons:
First, since the dawn of the printing press, zines have represented more than just words and images on pieces of paper. They’re the epicenter of a unique neighborhood—physical or otherwise—and they cultivate that neighborhood through the stories they tell and the people they gather.
One example: Giant Robot. Founded in Los Angeles in 1994, GR began as a bimonthly magazine dedicated to spotlighting Asian and Asian-American popular culture. While founder Eric Nakamura no longer publishes the print zine, they still have a store and gallery on Sawtelle Boulevard in L.A. The spaces focus on uplifting artists from around the GR community, and for the past twenty years, their annual “Post-it Show” draws lines around the block.
We drew direct inspiration from Giant Robot—and Moy floated the idea that we should bring a similar concept to Chicago.
Which brings us to our second point. Chicago has such an incredible, diverse, multidisciplinary group of artists that often doesn’t get the same love as the coasts. While our team doesn’t really have any experience hosting a fancy art gallery, we thought this could be a fun way to celebrate our friends’ work—both old and new.
We’ve been building a creative neighborhood every week through our various gatherings. An art show felt like a natural next step in our mission to Make The Internet Feel Smaller.
You can check out the launch video (shot & edited by the quite-talented Shua) here 👇
Finally, the third reason: We’re releasing the next edition of our magazine in March. We’re a little biased, but it’s a beautiful print product full of forty-plus pages of original stories and more, all created by our team.
The underlying theme of this season is a word: “Calling.” Both finding one’s calling as a creative person, as well as making time to call one’s friends and family in a world that’s becoming increasingly divisive.
That theme is woven into Saturday’s show. For creative inspiration, we gave all participating artists two prompts:
What’s the last great phone call you had?
Is there a friend or family member you’d like to catch up with—and maybe even ask them what you should create?
We currently have about a dozen artists participating, with room for several more. Plus, if you’d like to attend and peruse the gallery, we’ll be hosting it at our studio from 2-5 pm this Saturday—you can find more info and the link to RSVP at the Partiful here. Entry is free, though we do ask that you bring a new or gently used book to donate to a book drive we’re organizing.
And if you can’t make it—but know someone who would love to stop by—we’d really appreciate if you sent this to them. It goes a long way in helping us out 🙌
Alright, we’ll be back tomorrow with a new blog and interview. See ya then.
— Shua and Nate
Thanks for reading! Shoot us a reply, comment, or DM if you have any questions or comments—we respond to them all.
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