“Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? Why does one love the night, flowers, everything around one, without trying to understand them? But in the case of a painting people have to understand. If only they would realize above all that an artist works of necessity, that he himself is only a trifling bit of the world, and that no more importance should be attached to him than to plenty of other things which please us in the world, though we can't explain them. People who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.”
― Pablo Picasso
The latest collage news and inspiration!
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NEWS
She came into prominence in the early 2000s for her cheeky collages, which lift imagery and portraits from fashion magazines to comment wryly on society’s superficialities, racist undertones and unattainable beauty standards. Is her work Afrofuturist? Yes. It’s feminist, too—and stylish as hell - Don’t Miss: The Wangechi Mutu Retrospective at the New Museum - via Observer
Our gaze navigates the layers and parts that compose the figure and her environment, depicted using lace, fabric, oil, acrylic, dye, and painted canvas on canvas. Tschabalala Self’s Tabled (2021) is among the diverse array of works created by 108 living artists from 40 countries, working with collage nominated by museum directors, curators, critics, and collectors to be featured in Vitamin C+ Collage in Contemporary Art.. The latest book in Phaidon’s Vitamin series, launched in 2002, focuses on a current practice in a single art medium - Contemporary Artists Utilize Collage To Create Complex Social, Political, And Aesthetic Narratives In Latest Phaidon ‘Vitamin C+’ Tome - via Forbes
This is the largest showing of Alberta’s works to date, with sculptures, digital collages, watercolours and new paintings, made especially for the show, taking over the ground floor of Modern One. Alongside never-before-seen artworks, the exhibition offers you the opportunity to see Alberta’s extraordinary tapestry, Entanglement is more than blood, and film installation, Lagareh – The Last Born – which the artist presented at the Venice Biennale in 2022, commissioned by Scotland+Venice - Alberta Whittle | create dangerously - via National Galleries Scotland
Using a variety of mediums from photography to film to collage, Ara Oshagan weaves geographies and spaces that consider the impact of borders on our personal collective history and the disruption of dislocation. Ara is a photographer and installation artist based in Los Angeles who has exhibited worldwide. Curated by Ryann Casey - Armenian Museum’s New Exhibition Explores Issues of Dislocation & Cultural Identity - via Watertown News
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
Saki
Saki's creative process begins on the hunt (or finding) of materials and continues with the spontaneous selection and cutting of images that the artist assembles intuitively to let the final image reveal itself. The art pieces usually mirror an autobiographical narrative and a rapidly changing contemporary world, reflected in landscapes and imagined habitants of surreal universes.
More here
Celia Crane
My art practice is highly experimental and largely unpremeditated. I source imagery from a wide variety of modern and vintage publications as well as domestically-foraged ephemera such as food wrappers, discard books and instruction manuals. Though my collage compositions are primarily hand-cut and 2-dimensional, my growing interest in assemblage has necessitated regular dumpster dives and an expanded tool kit that includes cement, castoff toys and a host of other improvised dimensional components. With each wave of trial and error I find myself transported to a liminal space between chaos and transcendence, emerging from each exploration with fresh information. In this way, making collage feels like a continuous act of becoming. Recurrent themes in my work include identity crisis, the ills of society, the search for satori, and the insufferable cling of traumatic memory. Collage allows me to transform my lifelong obsession with the materiality of scraps into a feeling of stasis by marrying seemingly incongruent bits together.
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Carole Turini
Passionately curious, the artistic expression has always been essential to me. First with photography and writing, then with collage. With the art of collage, I am like Alice in Wonderland : I immerse myself in a world of infinite possibilities. Surrealist painters including Dalí and Magritte are also great sources of inspiration ; the illustration and the graphic design too.
I practice analogue collage, exploring and cutting magazines and books. I sometimes add other elements, like thread. Mix old papers, like postcards / photographies / illustrations with new papers is also a beautiful process who often creates rich interpretations ; however, I am very cautious with original old photographies, no cutting, only adding elements.
In essence, I like the idea of taking the viewer to the other side of the mirror in order to discover a dreamlike, surreal and poetic universe with always a hidden meaning, a message or a touch of humor.
More here
Jacqui Biffin
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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