John Held Jr. (mailartist)

He has traveled extensively to realize individual and collaborative art actions, and his many performance pieces include Shadow Project at Hiroshima and Kyoto, Japan (1986), and Rrose Mutt at the Time of Change Festival in Minden, Germany (2000).

[2] He has curated mail art shows and solo exhibitions throughout the world, most notably Stampworks, the first exhibition at the Stempelplaats Gallery, Amsterdam (1976), Artistamps in Tartu, Soviet Union (1989), Mail Art at the Palace of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba (1995), Bay Area Dada at Printed Matter in New York City (1999), Peace Island at Jeju Island, South Korea (2001), American Artistamps at the Stendhal Gallery, New York City (2010) American Artistamps,[3] and BMC to DIY, a Celebration of Black Mountain College Artists at Asheville, North Carolina, USA (2010).

[4] He was curator at the Stamp Art Gallery in San Francisco from 1995 to 1998, and produced numerous catalogs and multiples relating to the twentieth century avant-garde in collaboration with director Picasso Gaglione.

A play was written about his life titled "With Held" by playwright/actor Jeremy Julian Greco and was performed for several years in the San Francisco area circa 2010–2014.

He has carried out researches, and collects and institutionalizes relics and documents of the later twentieth century avant-garde, and worked for 25 years as an art librarian in New York State, Maryland and Dallas, Texas.