Candace Mercer
artist writer activist
Mercer began her career in Buffalo, NY where she was a rock critic, fashion designer and street artist. In 1992, she painted a landmark 16’ x 70’ foot mural on Elmwood Avenue. She had a solo installation, man has to be his own saviour, at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center. Mercer won the award for Best Graphic Painting in the Western New York juried competition at the Albright Knox Art Gallery, a major modern art museum.
Mic drop.
Mercer moved to Denver, CO where she exhibited at the Boulder Contemporary Art Museum. She also faced censorship for the first time in a Victims of Violence group show when her abortion rights piece “Pro-Life/Death Penalty” was pulled for being too graphic. She worked on a yet to be exhibited installation called Homicide.
In 1996, She migrated further west to Olympia, WA, where she exhibited at The Evergreen State College back when it was cool. Mercer was on the production team for the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice’s Olympia Rafah Mural Project, one of the largest Palestinian Solidarity artworks in the world and a centerpiece of downtown Olympia.
She also twice came in second in the Timberland Regional Library Literary Peeps Competition for her detailed interpretations of Stuff White People Like and More Stuff White People LIke. Victory eluded Mercer.
Mercer has co-written two novels but is primarily a long form journalist who covers homelessness and political violence in the PNW as well as gender ideology. In 2020, her writing led for calls by Antifa to “creatively silence” her.
This campaign of intimidation and disinformation intensified when Mercer ran for Olympia City Council in 2021 as an indie nonpartisan. She lost but her campaign took her activism to a new level. She is proud to have gotten TWO Republican endorsements despite being a weed smoking, pro choice atheist who formerly wrote for electronic intifada.
Currently, Mercer does street art in Olympia and shares files so people can do street art in their own cities.
She has become a specialist in bee suit alterations for both comfort and function, an exceptionally Olympia skill to possess.
candio.com is the synthesis of Mercer’s career. She has owned the domain for 25 years but was always busy with other projects.
Her merchandise is a combination of hand drawn 80s street art made modern with new text and graphics meant to foment courage and rebellion. It retains a pop art inspired minimalism that appropriates from many influences.
