Art comes in various mediums — painting, sculpting, digital, and even stickers.
“Hello My Name Is“ is an international sticker exhibition featuring more than 200 artists from around the world. Using United States Postal Service labels as their canvas, artists transformed everyday shipping materials into traveling artwork. All of the artists were introduced with the phrase: “Hello my name is.”
Masterminded by Richmond artist Ian Hess, the exhibit references the USPS 228 standard Priority Mail shipping labels — one of the most popular stickers used in street art.
“They’re just paper and free with the USPS, that’s the reason that they’re so beloved,” he said.
Hess made the sticker his own, printing United States Supply Service on the label referencing his art supply store at 320 W. Broad St., Supply.
He sent the stickers off to the artists who signed up to participate, and what came back were more than 200 miniature works of art — now displayed at Gallery5 through Friday.
The exhibit features big-name sticker artists such as RxSkulls, MCA Evildesign and a special piece done by Shepard Fairey, founder of OBEY Clothing and creator of the André the Giant Has a Posse sticker campaign done in 1989, plus his 2008 HOPE poster of Barack Obama during his presidential campaign.
There’s also a few hard-to-find USPS designs.
“These are from 1996 in May,” Hess said, pointing to a frame. “There’s become an obsessive collection nature to old-school USPS things because when they’re done with the design, they don’t use it again.”
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There’s a sticker from Richmond artist Noah Scalin, who also provided a custom piece for the exhibit’s other component: the sticker bus.
Inspired by a 2024 exhibition in Estonia, the sticker bus — a yellow school bus bought by Hess and his art-based nonprofit Little Giants Society at an auction — will be Richmond’s first-of-its-kind, full-sized vehicle covered in thousands of stickers from artists in the exhibition and community donations.
The rolling installation will double as both artwork and a community-powered project.
It also features a skull made of stickers by Scalin on the hood.
“The hope is that it becomes one of those iconic Richmond things,” Hess said. “I want to drive it all over the place.”
Hess said he’s been thinking about ways to use the bus, such as activating it into a mini-mobile shop on First Fridays, and hopefully field trips to the Manchester Art Park — an outdoor gallery under the Manchester Bridge proposed by Hess last year.
Folks were able to add stickers to the bus outside of the Byrd Theatre earlier this month for the premiere of the “Sticker Movie,” which dives into the history and culture of sticker making.
There will be another chance to add stickers to the bus Friday during the exhibit’s closing reception and free jazz night at Gallery5.
Stickers featured in “Hello My Name Is” are available for sale at littlegiantsociety.org/donate. Smaller pieces are $120 and large pieces are $500. Some of the proceeds will go toward raising funds for the art park, which is still awaiting approval from the city.