Onyx (architectural collective)
Onyx is a multi-member collective that was active in New York City from 1968 through the early 1970s and active intermittently to the present. Its members - Ron Williams, Woody Rainey, Tommy Simpson, Mike Hinge, Bob Buxbaum, Davis Allen, Sheridan Bell and Jack Wells among others—published architectural projects in the form of offset-printed posters or "broadsheets" that were mailed internationally. The members also went by a number of pseudonyms including Charles Albatross, Okra Plantz, Patrick Redson and Harvey Grapefruit. The poster format allowed the rapid reproduction and easy circulation of their ideas. While the collective distributed their posters through the postal service they also pasted the posters up throughout the streets of the city. There are many connections to the "mail art" phenomenon; the collective claimed affiliation with this artistic practice through the labeling of mailings as MAIL ART and interaction with others practicing this form, including Ant Farm, and Ray Johnson. Characterized by an intricate layering of text and images, the ONYX posters described speculative architectural projects, made allusions to architectural history, explored practices of architectural representation, and commented obscurely on current sociopolitical events.