Ed Higgins Gets ‘Mail Art’ Retrospective at Van Der Plas Gallery on Orchard Street
Photo: Van Der Plas Gallery
Fresh off featuring his art in Ludlow Coffee Supply, the Van Der Plas Gallery of Orchard Street is now dedicating a full artist retrospective to the late Ed Higgins.
Higgins, known as a pillar of the “Rivington School” movement in the 1980s Lower East Side, and for his unique “Mail Art,” died last December at the age of 72. He had lived, until his death, in the same rent stabilized Ludlow Street tenement since 1976. Forty-five years after moving from Colorado to the Lower East Side as a recent graduate.
His “wingnut” illustration graced surfaces across the neighborhood over the years. But it was his “Mail Art” that gained wider recognition. Higgins created hyper-artistic postage stamps for what he called the “Doo Da Post.”
These colorful stamps are what now hang on the gallery walls of 156 Orchard Street as part of the “Doo Da Forever” exhibition, which runs through June 5.
Photo: Adrian Wilson
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