2022Mail Art - Air, Selected Work at the VI Exhibition, Carmen Peláez - First Day Cover

The VI International Exhibition of Postal Art in Avilés had as its theme: the air, thus completing the four fundamental elements in the formation of life and that affect human beings in a substantial way. This call has once again been a success with a large participation of mail artists both in volume (more than 500 works) and in the countries represented (41 different countries). Thus, the inspiration of the hundreds of mail artists who have responded to the call went beyond the mere gaseous concept that is air, and each one developed creative and heterogeneous postal works with this element seen from many angles. The work selected from the crowd of mail artists has been a watercolor by Carmen Peláez that expresses the magical moment of the spread of a bird's wings. She reinforces the design with the repeated word air. The author Carmen Peláez (Ponte, Soto del Barco, 1967), an artist of recognized prestige, who combines her artistic development with functions as a Painting and Drawing teacher at the Avilés School of Arts and Crafts. Carmen Peláez has participated in individual and collective exhibitions in national and international venues and has been the recipient of different awards and distinctions related to her creative facet. The novelty for this contest has been double on the one hand because the label has an International rate (Rate C) to promote and disseminate this artistic discipline by inviting the participants of the next call to use the winning work for their shipments in 2021. On the other hand, in addition to the stamp, an illustrated postal card is issued with another of the works presented, whose author is Henrique Lemas, with the aim of recognizing all the mail artists who have been able to combine postal communication and creative expressiveness as is mail art. Stamps are works of art that tell stories, which is why Correos wanted to support and contribute to the dissemination of Mail Art, a discipline that promotes an original artistic activity that uses postal distribution as a means of expression, capturing a different story in each work.