Justseeds Artists' Cooperative is a decentralized artist cooperative that sells art online. Justseeds collaborates with and supports social movements.
Justseeds was started in 1998 by artist Josh MacPhee as a way to distribute his art and the Celebrate People's History poster series. He slowly expanded Justseeds to include the work of like-minded artists. In 2006, MacPhee reached out to a dozen like-minded artists and previous collaborators as well as the art collective and political street art blog Visual Resistance in order to re-create Justseeds as a cooperative effort. Justseeds was transformed into Justseeds/Visual Resistance Artists' Cooperative, an artist/worker owned and run cooperative, that launched in the summer of 2007.
The members of Justseeds include: Jesus Barraza, Kevin Caplicki, Melanie Cervantes, Alec Icky Dunn, Molly J. Fair, Nicolas Lampert, Josh MacPhee, Fernando Marti, Colin Matthes, Dylan Miner, Roger Peet, Jesse Purcell, Favianna Rodriguez, Erik Ruin, Shaun Slifer, Chris Stain, Meredith Stern, Swoon, Mary Tremonte, Kristine Virsis, Pete Yahnke, and Bec Young. In 2009 artists from the Cordyceps collective of Mexico City were included, making it an international and continental collective.
Among their group projects is a travelling art show curated by Josh Macphee titled "Paper Politics" which has traveled to dozens of cities.[1]
In July 2008 Justseeds had their first group installation at Space 1026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[2]
In March 2009 Justseeds had a second group installation, Which side are You On, at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.[3]
Currently, Justseeds has an exhibition at the University of Arizona entitled "Confronting the Capitalist Crisis."
There are several group projects that Justseeds has worked on, including "Voices From Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex".[4] which won the grand prix of the Graphics Art Biennial of Slovenia. They completed their second collective portfolio, RESOURCED, in the fall of 2010.
Members have written or edited several books, including: Realizing the Impossible edited by Josh MacPhee and Erik Reuland and published on AK Press. Reproduce and Revolt edited by Favianna Rodriguez and Josh MacPhee and published on Soft Skull Press.[5]
Several members of the group created the 2009 and 2011 SEIU Social Justice calendar.[6]
In 2009 Justseeds won the Grand Prix of The International Biennial of Graphic Arts in Slovenia.[7]