The Mayor Gallery presents Happy Birthday America!, a group exhibition marking the 250th anniversary of American independence. Bringing together a wide-ranging selection of artists, the exhibition offers a focused reflection on the vitality and diversity of American post-war and contemporary art.

Spanning movements from assemblage and Pop to conceptual and figurative practices, the exhibition includes works by Billy Apple, Billy Al Bengston, Bruce Conner, Joseph Cornell, Roy Ferdinand, Joe Goode, Robert Graham, Jann Haworth, Wally Hedrick, George Herms, Edward & Nancy Kienholz, Robert Mallary, Ed Paschke, Ken Price, Kurt Seligmann, Richard Stankiewicz, Paul Thek, John Tweddle, Robert Watts, and Tom Wesselmann.

Happy Birthday America! reflects the plurality of artistic responses that have emerged across the United States over the past century. From the poetic constructions of Joseph Cornell to the radical assemblages of George Herms and Ed & Nancy Kienholz, and from the bold language of Pop in Tom Wesselmann and Billy Al Bengston to the conceptual rigour of Robert Watts and Paul Thek, the exhibition forefronts a spirit of experimentation, irreverence, and reinvention.

American art as a site of continual transformation, shaped by shifting cultural, political, and social contexts. This selection of artists engage with wide ranging materials often blurring distinctions between high and low culture, permanence and temporality. Together, their works trace a lineage of innovation that has defined American artistic production in the post-war era.

Happy Birthday America! continues The Mayor Gallery’s longstanding engagement with American art, building on its history of exhibiting key figures associated with Pop Art, Minimalism, and Conceptual practices since the 1970s. Presented to mark this anniversary, the exhibition celebrates and reflects on the lasting international influence of American artists.