“If you want to really hurt you parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
― Kurt Vonnegut
The latest collage news and inspiration!
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NEWS
ONLINE WORKSHOP: The next edition of our bi-monthly collage-as-therapy workshop with art therapist Julia Volonts from Art Therapy Lab will take place May 28, 2023 at 17:00 CET. It’s as always free to attend. To sign up please email Julia directly at hello@arttherapy-lab.com
COLLAGE EXPERIENCE: also by the lovely Julia Volonts of Art Therapy Lab - PLEASE COLLAGE THIS - a collage pop-up studio in New York City this Sunday. If you’re in the neighborhood this weekend, go and say hi!
EXHIBITION: A collage exhibition with work by Mattias F. Krämer in Neu Darchau, Germany this week. If you’re in the area, go have a look!
Over the past three years, Segal has scoured auction houses, art fairs, galleries and online marketplaces, acquiring 143 works by 30 of the women (a selection of which are on show this week at Guggenheim’s former gallery, which Segal rents, at 30 West 57th Street). But one artist remains elusive: Gypsy Rose Lee—the burlesque entertainer, stripper and inspiration for the musical Gypsy, who also made paintings and collages - ‘Like a striptease’: Gypsy Rose Lee’s legacy lives on as her works remain elusive - via The Art Newspaper
While the creator of the book I was examining used a pale blue background for her own form of mosaic, Mary Delaney created the inkiest of black backdrops by painting white paper with black watercolor until it was as dark as it could be. She practiced her art form over the next decade, cutting thousands upon thousands of tiny slivers of paper in all the colors of the botanical rainbow to create hundreds of her now-famous collages. “I have invented a new way of imitating flowers,” she wrote in a letter in 1772. So detailed were her creations that botanists still refer to their accuracy, and they are studied with awe at their home in the British Museum - The Dress Diary of Mrs. Anne Sykes - via The Paris Review
Contreras’ work sometimes tackles social issues and often acts as an exploration of her own identity, now with an added development of working with children to build identities around language, place, and culture. Experiencing most of her life in Mexico, Contreras’s art gives a complex glimpse into what she describes as layers of culture, identity, and influence. These works usually come out in the form of collages, a medium Contreras works often in - Mexican-American artist Angelica Contreras uses her artwork to explore identity, culture, and social justice - via Madison 365
Larry Achiampong’s Striking Collages Confront Christianity, Video Games, and Colonialism - via Artsy
Transfiguring discarded architectural parts and detritus into new bodies for an alternative, boundless world, Chiffon Thomas rebuilds from rubble - Chiffon Thomas - via BOMB Magazine
PCC: The catalogue for our Rachid Taha Open Call & Exhibition is available here
PCC: A selection of challenge submissions from last week is up on our website and can be seen here, the image prompt for next week is available to download here
FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY - OLD & NEW
Nicoleta Ababei
Mixed media artist based in Romania. I also enjoy writing about my passion for art, tango and creativity, on my blog. I am extremely passionate about analog collage. I like working with paper, feeling its smell, its texture. I tend to keep the scraps of paper that remain, I don't throw anything away. For me, all the "left pieces" of paper have their place, I organize them by category. This helps me to find a piece more easily when I have a new collage idea. Any "rest" can become the element of surprise, the missing piece of my collage. I really enjoy working intuitively. I don't propose a specific theme when I start a collage. Something about the images before me piques my interest. I start from there, that is the point where a visual story begins and not only... For me, analogue collage it is a form of self exploration and expression at the same time. It is the result of a process of introspection, as much as finding new perspectives. More here
Iris Weaver
Iris Weaver is a mixed media artist, photographer, a sometimes poet and a sometimes dancer. She grew up making collage with her collage artist and art therapist mother. Iris went to art school at The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and then at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam on weekends while teaching in The Netherlands. She is currently teaching children art and is a classroom teacher in Bonny Doon, California. Iris often includes her own photographs, drawings and paintings in her collage. Her collage focuses on images of women, dance, swimming, vintage fitness, water, flowers, architecture and places she’s traveled to and loved. More here
Christian Stork
Collages enables me to link random finds and thereby give them new meaning. For me, making a collage is like drifting through what is already there, be it photos, pictures or something else. I find ideas in analogue and digital ways. It is always exciting to discover connections that often appear unexpected but then in their interaction, in the best case, form a connection that looks as if it had always existed! The resulting images almost always deal with the role of people in their social structure, with their desires, dreams and fears. I experience nature, flora and fauna as a strong means of artistic expression to make these themes visible and to reinforce them. For a while I've been using color pigments, preferably gold or blue. They give the pictures power, depth and dignity. For my collages I mainly use historical photos or pictures from old textbooks. The age of these templates gives them great expressiveness and timelessness. More here
Hondo Ratkovic
I am Hondo. My name sounds like a pseudonym, but it is not.
I have always had a passion for vintage magazines, advertisements and their iconic images, which have not lost their relevance. Their messages, however, are from a different time.
Some of my work revolves around advertising, its messages and imagery. I love the ambiguous, the ironic. I love telling stories in pictures, giving things a new meaning and opening up new perspectives. In doing so, I stick to "less is more".
Since I started pursuing my great passion in 2020, I don't have a big plan or concept yet. I just got going, tried different things and am very happy when I hold a new collage in my hands.
My journey has just begun. I invite you into my world of stories. More here
If you have any news about exhibitions, publications or events you want so share with the community, please send an email with all relevant information and at least one link to a website or venue to: hello@pariscollagecollective.com