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FROM KOLAJ 29
The Fruitfulness of Metaphor
"Fragmentation is a commonality of our human experience. The process of attaching, mending and unifying physical fragments in collage is a metaphor for psychological integration." In Kolaj #28, a conversation between artists Clive Knights and Andrea Burgay introduced the atypical collage practices of both artists. The dialogue focused on the use of physical methods of excavation as a metaphor for ideas that drive their work. The second part of that conversation appears in Kolaj #29. MORE
COLLAGE ON VIEW
Marmalade Dreams
Dafna Steinberg at The Lab Gallery, Brentwood Arts Exchange in Brentwood, Maryland, USA through 24 October 2020. "Two weeks before he died on March 4, 2020, my father asked me to teach him how to make a collage. He told me that he loved watching me cut up magazines and create new pictures with the pieces I had found. He didn’t think he would be able to do it, but he really wanted to try," writes Steinberg about this solo exhibition. MORE
FROM KOLAJ 29
Collage Kits
"The night before all the stores across Canada started to close, I was in a hotel bar an hour-and-a-half away from my home trying to figure out how to support people who were going to be trapped inside in the weeks to come." When society went into lockdown, Danielle Cole jumped into action. In Kolaj #29, the Toronto, Ontario artist writes about her experience making collage kits and sharing them with her neighbors. MORE
FROM KOLAJ 29
Muralism
Muralism in Kolaj #29 is the second part in a year-long series of articles that investigates the strategies and approaches artists use to go big, increase the scale of their work, and engage with the larger art world. We report on two examples of mural making: Black Warrior River Mural by Teresa Cribelli in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and the CollabSlab at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2019 by the Mystic Krewe of Scissors & Glue. MORE
COLLAGE ON VIEW
Vestiges
Vanessa Woods and Josh Smith at Jack Fischer Gallery in San Francisco, California, USA through 17 October 2020. “Vestiges” consists of photographs and collages by married artists Vanessa Woods and Josh Smith, who explore the complicated dynamics of abstraction, intimacy and the body. The artists individually examine their experiences as parents and therein ideas of identity, intimacy, desire and the unknown. Despite using different media and approaches, their work is connected by a shared interrogation of the body, where the human form is revealed, obfuscated, and fractured. MORE
FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY
Gateways to an Energy Vortex
Frenchtown, New Jersey, USA. Nicole Strafaci thinks of her pieces as portals; gateways to an energy vortex. Inspired by her emotional reactions to her life and to the world around her, Strafaci writes, “I believe that if we delve deep inside the personal experiences of our lives, we transcend them and communicate on a universal level.” Her imagery is often a balance between figurative and abstract and explores topics of femininity, beauty, environmental decay, and natural and urban landscapes. MORE
COLLAGE ON VIEW
Le voltigeur en slip by Guillaume Chiron
As part of Kolaj LIVE Online, Kolaj Institute is hosting a Fundraising Exhibition to support the organization's residencies, publications, fellowships, and traveling programs. The artwork on sale benefits both the artist and the organization. Guillaume Chiron is a French artist known for his surreal, colourful artwork. In his artistic approach, he mixes the real with the unreal, the known with the unknown. First, his art is deconstructed by multiple samples in a body of images produced and made available by the cultural industry. Then, he reconstructs and projects a new world, by selecting and bringing together some of these fragments. MORE
Recent Publications
CURRENT ISSUE
KOLAJ #29
In the magazine: One of David Crunelle's lenticular collage is on the cover. Articles talk about the 'Cool Zone' of history; award winning collage; a new publishing project; how collage artists are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic; a report from Warsaw, Poland; going big with murals; an exhibition of Max Ernst collages; a profile of Amsterdam-based collagist Bob Bunck; and a Cut Out Page by Aylmer, Quebec artist Louise Héroux. Andrea Burgay and Clive Knights continue their conversation about excavation as a metaphor for ideas. And we have artist portfolios from Vancouver, Canada; Saugerties, New York; Tucson, Arizona; Mexico City, Mexico; and San Francisco, California. MORE
PUBLICATION
Collage Magic
by Emma Anna
Part autobiography, part fantasy, Emma Anna’s vision of The New Old World (aka The NOW) fuses vintage ephemera with modern imaging technologies. Emma shapes this strange world by using the pen tool from Adobe Photoshop as her magic wand, in the process declaring herself to be a “collage magician”. Part artist book, part document of art making, Collage Magic, from La Casa Verde Editions, is Emma Anna’s journey through magic and art. MORE
PUBLICATION
Kolaj LIVE Online Program Book
The Kolaj LIVE Online Program Book is your guide to the event. The 62-page book includes in-depth descriptions of the fourteen Kolaj LIVE Online events along with biographies of the presenters and institutional partners. The book serves as the catalog for the Kolaj Institute Fundraising Exhibition. It also comes with four starter collages to participate in the Collage Castell activity, a cat-themed Cut Out Page for the Cat & Paste Workshop, and a commentary about the creation of the event. MORE
Radical Reimaginings is sent automatically to members of the Silver Scissors & Golden Glue Societies and those who join before September 15th, 2020. These special subscribers support the work of Kolaj Institute while receiving an item from Kolaj each month. LEARN MORE
BOOK
Radical Reimaginings
The curators of the 96-page book invited artists who use collage in their practice to put forward a work of art that offers a visual narrative that speaks to the unprecedented change unfolding in 2020. An essay by Ric Kasini Kadour reflects upon collage's unique ability to imagine new realities. Forty artists from nine countries and multiple Indigenous peoples—Salish-Kootenai/Métis-Cree/Sho-Ban, Tlingit/Nisga’a, Oglala/Lakota, and Seneca Nation—offer a variety of perspectives. The voices of Black, Latinx, Native, and white Americans mingle with those from Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Canada, France, and Germany. Artwork is accompanied by a statement in which the artists describe how they want to reimagine the world. MORE
Our goal with every issue is that Kolaj Magazine is essential reading for anyone interested in the role of contemporary collage in art, culture, and society. Each issue of Kolaj Magazine is dedicated to reviewing and surveying contemporary collage with an international perspective. We are interested in collage as a medium, a genre, a community, and a 21st century art movement.
