Startup Art Fair LA: SHOEBOX Arts Initiative: Call and Response Collaborative Books

Something big is happening.

After five years of digital exchanges connecting artists across six continents, Call and Response is going physical for the first time.

Startup Art Fair LA | February 27 – March 1, 2026The Kinney Venice Beach | Room 202

THE PROJECT

In October 2025, we randomly paired 190 artists to create collaborative books together. Four months later, we have approximately 90 unique collaborative works—oracle decks, teabag weavings, painted photographs, sculptural volumes, accordion books, visual puzzles.

Each book represents a creative conversation between two strangers who had never met. From India to Iowa, Germany to the United Arab Emirates—artists navigated time zones, shipping logistics, language barriers, and completely different creative approaches to make something neither could have conceived alone.

This is Call and Response at its core: random pairing, radical trust, real collaboration.

Call and Response, a global artist collaboration program that has connected over 500 artists across six continents since 2020, makes its first physical iteration at Startup Art Fair LA.

After 20+ digital rounds of rapid-fire creative exchanges during the pandemic, this exhibition marks a significant evolution: 190 artists were randomly paired to create collaborative books together over four months. Partners worked either by mailing physical books back and forth internationally or creating pieces individually and combining them—navigating time zones, language barriers, shipping logistics, and completely different artistic approaches to produce works that neither artist could have conceived alone.

Room 202 will showcase approximately 90 collaborative artist books across all mediums—from altered vintage volumes to handmade constructions, accordion books, visual puzzles, oracle decks, and sculptural interpretations. The intimate hotel suite setting allows visitors to interact closely with each unique work, displayed throughout the space on beds, tables, and dressers.

This is a selling exhibition with works split equally between the two collaborating artists and Shoebox Arts. Each book represents the artifact of a four-month creative conversation between strangers who became collaborators through Call and Response’s signature random pairing method—a model that continues to prove quality collaboration doesn’t require institutional gatekeepers, just radical trust in the creative process.

THE EXHIBITION

Location: The Kinney Venice Beach, 737 Washington Blvd, Venice, CA 90292Room: 202

Hours:

• Friday, February 27: VIP Early Access 5-7pm | All Access 7-10pm

• Saturday, February 28: 12pm – 9pm

• Sunday, March 1: 12pm – 7pm

The intimate hotel suite setting allows visitors to interact closely with each work—books displayed throughout the space on beds, tables, and dressers. This is a selling exhibition with works split equally between the two collaborating artists and Shoebox Arts.

Get Tickets: www.startup-art.com/los-angeles

My work in progress with artist Michelle Robinson

LIVE: EXQUISITE CORPSE ZINE MAKING

Throughout the weekend, fair visitors can participate in collaborative exquisite corpse zine-making sessions. Create art together with strangers, experience the Call and Response philosophy in real time.

All completed zines will be auctioned off for charity.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Call and Response started in April 2020 when everything shut down. Artists needed each other but all the structures for connection had disappeared.

What began as a pandemic response—pairing artists randomly for two-week digital exchanges—became proof that meaningful collaboration doesn’t require institutional permission. No fees. No applications. No gatekeepers. Just artists supporting artists through creative exchange.

Twenty rounds later, the model has facilitated lasting partnerships, gallery exhibitions, and creative community across cultural and geographic boundaries. Artists like Jody Zellen and Lorraine Bubar met through Call and Response and went on to exhibit at Proxy Gallery.

Others discovered new techniques, explored different media, found creative community during isolation.

This exhibition at Startup Art Fair marks the next evolution: collaboration that exists in three dimensions, works you can hold in your hands, partnerships that produced physical objects through radical trust.

FOLLOW THE PROJECT

ABOUT SHOEBOX ARTS

Shoebox Arts connects artists to opportunities and builds creative community through programs like Call and Response and Perceive Me. Operating from the Brewery Arts Complex in Los Angeles, we eliminate barriers to meaningful artistic exchange.