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COLLAGE ON VIEW
In Bloom
At Kilmorack Gallery by Beuly, Inverness-shire, Scotland through 4 June 2021. Scottish collage artist Colin Brown’s latest work, “In Bloom”, is inspired by the work of 18th Century Belgian botanical painter Pierre-Joseph Redouté. This “prescient, life affirming body of work” reflects our growing need for reconnection with nature and reveals Redouté’s historical work in a new light. Characteristically playful and optimistic, Brown’s “In Bloom” series celebrates our capacity to reimagine the world. MORE
COLLAGE ON VIEW
Collage at the 15th Flatpack Festival
From 26-29 May 2021, the 15th Flatpack Festival offers on its website a 20-minute film about Irish collagist Seán Hillen, followed by a recorded question and answer session by collagist and designer Mark Murphy of the Birmingham Collage Collective. "This intimate and fascinating portrait of the effervescent Hillen explores what it’s like to be an artist with Aspergers, having grown up through the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and how he finds inspiration, and a new lease of artistic endeavour in a chaotic world." MORE
FROM KOLAJ 32
Mind the Gap
In Kolaj 32, Rod T. Boyer dives into the relationship between haiku and collage. He writes, "As a practitioner and observer of collage, I have long operated under the assumption that one of its principal mechanisms is juxtaposition, the placing of two (or more) items from different contexts next to each other. In this way, the artist uses a new connection to signal a new idea or vision." MORE
FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY
Stay Grounded
Portland, Maine, USA. During the pandemic, Amanda Petrozzini started collaging nearly every day, and it was fun to see all of these bright colors and abstract shapes take over her blank white pages. She was surprised by the colors because when she previously made art, it was often dark and moody. MORE
FROM KOLAJ 32
Cutting Edge
Rebecca Steiner’s collages are in dialogue with American pop culture, excess and mass consumption: the stayholds from which she constructs environments and takes candid snapshots of the figures presented. Contextualizing images of fifties and sixties Americana for today’s audience, Steiner reinforces the idea that both the public and private spheres are still oppressive in their socially-condoned definitions, leaving very little room for experimentation, openness and the marginalized. Each collage serves as a mise-en-scène, where a singular moment in time culminates in a dramatic, active performance between and amongst the figures. Madeleine Rhondeau offers a review of Steiner's collage in Kolaj 32. MORE
CALL TO ARTISTS
Kolaj LIVE Milwaukee Call for Artists, Paper, & Projects
DEADLINE: June 20, 2021. Kolaj LIVE Milwaukee is a weekend festival and symposium July 30th to August 1st, 2021. Our mission is to create a platform that allows us to explore critical issues around collage: how it is curated and presented, its role in contemporary art, and the tensions between collage as a medium, a genre, a community, and a movement. Responding to this Call is how you tell us that you would like to take on a presenting role at the event. MORE
KOLAJ LIVE ONLINE
The Parent Trap: How to Be an Artist with Kids
Sunday, June 27th 2021, 4PM EST. In her 2018 book, A Big Important Art Book - Now with Women!, Danielle Krysa tells a number of stories about how artists who negotiate being a mother and working their art practice. Spoiler alert, It's not easy. In this Kolaj LIVE Online forum, Krysa will join four additional panelists and speak about how they negotiate parenthood, specifically the challenges of being an artist and raising children. Wylie Garcia will talk about managing creative time with young children, ways to stay engaged in one's practice, finding time to make art, and how to incorporate it into the daily routine, without feeling guilty. Cheryl Chudyk will talk about feeling like an outsider among both her childless colleagues in art and other non-artist parents, not quite fitting in with either. Ben DiNino will speak to being a stay at home parent and how he has adapted his process to be more flexible with both the time and energy available to him. Teresa Cribelli will talk about how parenting sets strict parameters around each daily schedule. The event is free and open to anyone. MORE
Recent Publications
JOIN KOLAJ INSTITUTE
Members of the Silver Scissors & Golden Glue Societies support the work of Kolaj Institute while receiving an item from Kolaj each month. Those who join before 30 June 2021 will receive The Money $how. LEARN MORE
BOOK
The Money $how: Cash, Labor, Capitalism & Collage
The Money $how juxtaposes contemporary artwork against fragments of history and literature as a way of showing how collage can help us deconstruct culture and understand the world differently. The book takes readers on a tour of late-stage capitalism. The book starts from the premise that money is an idea that shapes contemporary life and present works that invite viewers to consider cash, labor, and capital. Each contemporary artist in the book uses collage to unpack ideas about money and its influence on our culture. Artworks speak about Black wealth, immigrant remittances, and how mid-20th century advertising informs present-day attitudes. Artists collage dollar bills into flowers and mine material remnants to tell stories about home economics. 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. We not only hope you enjoy the articles and images in Kolaj #32, we hope it leads you to asking great questions.
CURRENT ISSUE
Kolaj #32
In the Kolaj #32's editorial, Ric Kasini Kadour writes, “I often find myself saying, Collage is powerful magic. The collage community often feels like we are off in our own private corner of the art world. We excel at sharing that collage magic with each other. How can we do better sharing it with the rest of the world?” Each issue of Kolaj Magazine shows how collage artists are making their way through the world. International in scope, we explore all aspects of collage and its impact on society and culture. MORE
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SPECIAL EDITION
World Collage Day 2021
In honour of World Collage Day, May 8, 2021, Kolaj Magazine is releasing a special edition of the magazine. The Special Edition is full of Cut-Out Pages and stories from inspiring collage artists. MORE
Note: The World Collage Day Special Edition is not included in a regular Kolaj Magazine subscription.
COLLAGE BOOK
Unfamiliar Vegetables: Variations in Collage
Unfamiliar Vegetables is a collection of collage where each of the fifty artists interpreted, in their own way, Carlotta Bonnecaze’s 1892 Carnival float design Familiar Vegetables. Project organizer Christopher Kurts observed, “Unfamiliar Vegetables is an experiment in controlled chaos….tiny variations within each artist’s creative sphere accumulate until the outcomes are as unique as the people creating them.” MORE
COLLAGE COMMUNITIES
The International Directory of Collage Communities
The 104-page book is a survey of collage networks, guilds, communities, and projects as well as online efforts and groups focused on collage research. For each community, the directory presents their key activities, mission, how to join, and a bit of their history. Copious images illustrate the book. 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
BOOK
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
BOOK
Revolutionary Paths
When the collage is presented in exhibition, it is often done so without the critical framework granted other mediums. In "Revolutionary Paths: Critical Issues in Collage", exhibition curator Ric Kasini Kadour presents examples of collage that represent various aspects and takes on the medium. Each work in the exhibition represents the potential for deeper inquiry and further curatorial exploration of the medium. MORE
BOOK
Cultural Deconstructions
Collage is unique as a medium in that it uses as its material artifacts from the world itself. To harvest those fragments, the artist must first deconstruct culture; they must select, cut, and remove the elements they do not wish to use and then reconstruct work that tells a new story. In "Cultural Deconstructions: Critical Issues in Collage", exhibition curator Ric Kasini Kadour presents examples of collage artists who are deconstructing identity as a way to critique culture. 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.
