HSC&A / Artist Talk : poems for a postmistress
poems for a postmistress
November 22, 2025 - January 10, 2026
5613 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019
Artist Talk
Saturday, November 22 at 2 PM
Reception to follow: 3 PM - 5 PM
Hannah Sloan Curatorial & Advisory in collaboration with Craig Krull Gallery, is pleased to present, poems for a postmistress, works by George Herms and Michael Deyermond, with a special selection of correspondence and vintage photographs from the collection of Marvin Silver. The exhibition will be on view from November 22, 2025 - January 10, 2026.
poems for a postmistress pairs the work of two contemporary artists who have explored the nature of what it means to post an item through the mail system, and how those postcards, letters, and stamps become art objects.
George Herms, a legendary nexus of the California Beat Generation, has been making assemblages and collages of rusted detritus and cultural residue since the 1950s. Over the course of two years, from 2006 to 2008, the Getty Research Institute processed, catalogued and collected the papers of George Herms for their permanent archives. Getty associate Sarah Anderson opened hundreds of his letters, saving the pertinent material and tossing the envelopes and other “unnecessary” items into the waste bin. In typical Herms fashion, he understood the value of those old postmarked, letterhead envelopes from galleries and museums, stained with the acid of brown cardboard boxes. Herms then assembled collages from these castaways, creating further layers of time and shape, finally adding his signature L-O-V-E rubber stamps to the four corners.
George Herms, Untitled (Silence, We Discovered), 2009
Aged envelope collage on cardstock, 13 7⁄8 x 10 3⁄4 inches
Michael Deyermond’s work, often installation-oriented, addresses loneliness, rejection, relationships, and always the dream that “California could save me.” His mail art was created during a tumultuous time in the early 2000s–the majority of it addressed to a dear friend in Bolinas, California, in care of his “Postmistress.” Expressive, hand-painted or linocut words on rough hewn cardboard read “please don’t ever give up on me,” “god I turn me on,” “Suicide now with glory,” alongside typewritten poetic stanzas like, “what would it be like if los angeles had real snow or real stars and the rest of the world had us.” The work radiates the desperation and hope of a poet laying his soul bare on postcards that are not protected by envelopes as they pass through the hands of strangers en route to their intended recipient.
A selection of mail art/ephemera from the collection of Marvin Silver
We are also thrilled to include an extraordinary and rare selection of vintage photographs, handwritten correspondence and original mail art from the collection of acclaimed photographer, Marvin Silver, documenting the fertile period of West Coast correspondence history of the 1960s. Included in this treasure trove are works by Herms, Wallace Berman, original copies of the literary journal, Semina, and intimate photographs by Marvin Silver of Herms and his family.
/ Artist Talk
Please join us for an Artist & Curator Talk with Michael Deyermond and Hannah Sloan.
Saturday, November 22nd at 2pm
5613 San Vicente Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90019
Artist reception to follow from 3-5pm.
/ About
George Herms (b. 1935, Woodland, CA) is widely recognized as one of the founding figures of West Coast assemblage. Since the 1950s, he has created sculpture, painting, collage, installations, and performance with found materials. Herms has exhibited extensively and is represented in major museum collections. He has been awarded three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, the Prix de Rome, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Award, and a Getty Research Institute Fellowship.
Michael Deyermond (b. 1972, Rochester, NY) is a poet and artist whose work bridges literature and visual art. A graduate of Phillips Academy Andover and Franklin & Marshall College, Deyermond’s installations and drawings are held in the collections of The Getty, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, UCLA’s Clark Library, and the Center for the Study of Political Graphics. He lives and works between Los Angeles and Cloverdale, CA.
Artwork Details:
Michael Deyermond, if christ were black, 2002, linoleum on paper, 7.5 x 5.5 inches
George Herms, Untitled (Silence, We Discovered), 2009, aged, stained paper collage on cardstock, 13 7⁄8 x 10 3⁄4 inches
A selection of mail art/ephemera from the collection of Marvin Silver
Michael Deyermond, suicide now with glory, 2002 (verso) printed poem, stamps and handwriting, 7.5 x 5.5 inches
