The art world tends to be exclusive by design, but a gallery founder and a curator in NYC decided to team up and do the most inclusive thing they could think of by offering to display any work sent their way in the ultimate “open call” for artists.

The exhibition, dubbed Et Tu, Art Brute? specified only one criteria: artworks had to be 12 by 20 inches or smaller in order, to avoid complicated shipping problems and ensure enough space would be available to put up all the pieces.

Curator Jamie Sterns and gallery founder Andrew Edlin weren’t sure what to expect, but the packages started to roll in — some dropped off locally, others mailed from around the world — photographs, films, drawings, paintings, sculptures and more.

Over 700 works by famous artists and first-timers arrived, all of which would end up being rotated through and displayed side by side with equal priority at  AEG Underground in The Bowery. Every work was priced at $200, the gallery operators and artists splitting proceeds 50/50.

The whole project questioned conventional ideas of insider and outsider art, and what it means to curate when an exhibit is in essence anti-curation by design. In a way, it wound up being like a work of installation meta-art, a critique and commentary on the art world itself. (via Arsty)