MAGAZINE | INSTITUTE | CURRENT ISSUE | ARTIST DIRECTORY | SHOP
CALLS TO ARTISTS | WORLD COLLAGE DAY
COLLAGE ON VIEW
Gratiot Griot
Judy Bowman at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit through 26 March 2023. “Gratiot Griot” is the first solo museum exhibition of mixed media collage artist Judy Bowman. This exhibition presents new works alongside older collages by the artist that invite viewers to engage with the rich cultural tapestry of life across the African diaspora. Bowman creates visual works inspired by stories of African American life. Collaged images depict and highlight the intimate landscape of neighborhoods, homes and gathering places that encouraged Bowman’s development as a griot. In West African tradition, a griot is a storyteller who, through creative performance, preserves and shares the cultural legacy and histories of their people. “Gratiot Griot” highlights Bowman’s extensive career as a storyteller. MORE
FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY
Inspired by Picasso
Ellensburg, Washington, USA. KD Granger's collage work is an ongoing exploration of how to use found objects to create works of art that are thought-provoking, nostalgic, and/or humorous. Sometimes it is merely a color scheme that initially inspires her, while other times it is a theme that sets the project in motion. At the time of this writing, her most recent piece was inspired by the portrait works of Pablo Picasso, and the muse struck (as often happens) while she was engaged in some activity that requires very little thought. MORE
FROM THE PRINT MAGAZINE
Art for Life Award
Kellie O’Dempsey’s Wish You Were Here 1 is a 47”x47” collage and projection, which began as the artist’s reimagining of a post-pandemic life. In her artist statement, O’Dempsey described the artwork as where the “uncanny collides with the uncertain”, where in search of progress a figure attempts to travel yet goes nowhere. The work combines collaged paper with a video projection and uses repetition and monotonous loops to create a non-specific location and time. Her artwork blends the physical and the psychological for a moment of hypnosis and absurdity to find balance in an uncertain world. In Kolaj 37, we report on the Award the Australian collagist has received. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PRINT MAGAZINE
CALL TO ARTISTS
Collage Poet in Residence
At MERZ in Sanquhar, Scotland, 6-20 May 2023. MERZ is partnering with Kolaj Institute to offer a solo residency to one artist who works at the intersection of Poetry and Collage. Over a two-week period, the Collage-Poet-In-Residence will live in the Bothy at MERZ and work out of the MERZ Gallery to make a body of collage poems that will be presented as part of World Collage Day 2023 in Sanquhar and be published in a future issue of PoetryXCollage. Kolaj Institute will consider the publication of a chapbook of collage poetry. Deadline to apply: Saturday, 8 April 2023. MORE
COLLAGE ON VIEW
Stranger(s) in the Village
Gary Burnley at the Amarillo Museum of Art in Amarillo, Texas, USA through 26 March 2023. Gary Burnley creates physical collages and stereographic devices that encourage dissociated images to merge in the eye and mind of the viewer. Resulting in optical rivalries that explore representation, memory and an image’s meaning through contrast, his amalgamations imagine strange bedfellows congruent for moments in time, space and reason. Burnley writes, "I think of being an artist as a way of trespassing where historically ‘Others’ have not been welcomed nor seen as belonging. If one of the primary functions of any image is to validate and give permanence to the world it describes and to the persons that inhabit that world, the physicality of collage allows me to, materially and psychologically, construct a world of my specification." MORE
COLLAGE ON VIEW
#1 Family Attraction
Ileana Doble Hernandez and Robyn Day at the Fountain Street Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts, USA through 2 April 2023. “#1 Family Attraction” is a phenomenological response to this moment in U.S. history—the language of artists grappling with the enormity and complexity of sociopolitical tumult. Each artist turned to collaging the media to make sense of what seems incomprehensible in its pages: a global pandemic, totalitarian impulses in a U.S. political party and other parts of the world, the erosion of civil rights, and an incalculable backlash of racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia. Day builds collages digitally, drawing historical parallels to earlier crises and pointing to the dangers and absurdities of extremism. Doble Hernandez browses through magazine pages in an attempt to get away from the screens, only to find reminders of the same news she’s trying to avoid. Cutting and placing clips together helps her deal with the irrationality of the situation. Both artists are engaged in making political posters as a way to process, heal, refocus and continue the fight. MORE
FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY
The Global Black Experience Through Collage
Washington, DC, USA. Paula Mans tells the many stories of the global Black experience through collage. The artist views collage as emblematic of the cultural and historical interconnectedness of the African Diaspora. Just as the dispersed people of the African Diaspora are tied together by the common thread of ancestry, in collage, small, seemingly disjointed pieces are fused to communicate one story. In her analog collage works, Paula draws from an extensive collection of portrait photography of people from across the Diaspora–cutting, deconstructing, layering, bonding, and resignifying small parts to assemble new faces and forms that communicate identity and shared experiences. MORE
Registration is Open!
Kolaj Fest New Orleans is 7-11 June 2023
LEARN MORE | CALLS TO ARTISTS | REGISTER
OTHER CALLS TO ARTISTS
Folklore & Collage
Virtual Residency
June & July 2023
DEADLINE:
Sunday, 14 May 2023.
LEARN MORE
Collage as Street Art Residency
4-11 June 2023
in New Orleans
DEADLINE:
Sunday, 16 April 2023.
LEARN MORE
Queer Men Artist Lab:
New Orleans
21-25 June 2023
DEADLINE:
Sunday, 14 May 2023.
LEARN MORE
Collage in Motion
at Kolaj Fest
New Orleans
DEADLINE:
Sunday, 30 April 2023.
LEARN MORE
PRINT MAGAZINE
Kolaj Magazine relies on our subscribers. Your support of this magazine keeps us going and makes it possible for us to investigate and document collage and to promote a deeper, more complex understanding of the medium and its role in art history and contemporary art.
CURRENT ISSUE
Kolaj #37
Cats. Cats in space. Cats lounging around buildings. San Fran Cat Nap by Matt McCarthy is on the cover of Kolaj 37. This digital collagist from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA “transports viewers to a world that’s similar to our own, but also features massive felines stalking our landscapes” and has a lot of fun doing so.
Kolaj Magazine exists to show how the world of collage is rich, layered, and thick with complexity. By remixing history and culture, collage artists forge new thinking. To understand collage is to reshape one's thinking of art history and redefine the canon of visual culture that informs the present. MORE
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Folklore of the Upper Nithsdale is sent automatically to members of the Silver Scissors & Golden Glue Societies.
These special subscribers support the work of Kolaj Institute while receiving an item from Kolaj each month.
Join before 15 April 2023 to receive your copy.
COLLAGE BOOK
Folklore of the Upper Nithsdale
Stories of Witches, Ghosts, & Other Spirits from Sanquhar, Scotland
Thirty-three collage artists illustrate stories of witches, ghosts, and other spirits from Sanquhar, Scotland. Using stories collected from William Wilson’s 1904 book, artists reimagine these tales in a 21st Century context and invite us to see folklore as the imagination of the past, understood in the present. The book includes an introduction by Ric Kasini Kadour
"We present selections of artwork paired with some of Wilson's original texts," writes Ric Kasini Kadour in the Introduction. The artists "are operating from a 21st century vantage point, a view informed by nearly a century where folklore was academically studied and taught. The transformation was radical...The artists are directing our gaze to why these stories continue to matter today." PURCHASE THE BOOK
Learn more about the project HERE.
Details: 2023 | 130 pages | 9"x6" | ISBN 978-1-927587-67-6
Learn more about Kolaj Institute's Folklore Project HERE
Your donation makes Kolaj Institute's programs & projects possible. This is just one of the ways we are working to elevate collage's standing in the art world. Please make a donation today!
NEW BOOK
PoetryXCollage
Volume Three
PoetryXCollage is a printed journal of artwork and writing which operates at the intersection of poetry and collage. Each issue presents six movements of work by artists and curators. Page spreads are meant to be free zones of thinking where the contributor has chosen all elements of the layout: font, image place, composition, etc. In Volume Three: Adam Farcus (Urbana, Illinois, USA) | Carolina Martins (Lisbon, Portugal) | Émilie Karuna (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) | Jenn Arras (Brooklyn, New York, USA) | Julie Byers (Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia) | Kerrie More (Kalispell, Montana, USA).
POETRY JOURNAL
PoetryXCollage
Volume One
PoetryXCollage is a printed journal of artwork and writing which operates at the intersection of poetry and collage. We are interested in found poetry, blackout poetry, collage poems, haikus, centos, response collages, response poems, word scrambles, concrete poetry, scatter collage poems, and other poems and artwork that inhabit this world. In this issue: Rosemary Rae, El Cajon, California, USA | Cathy Greenhalgh, London, United Kingdom | Jennifer Roche, Chicago, Illinois, USA | doriana diaz, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA | Thomas Mayer, Berlin, Germany l Cheryl Chudyk, Kirkland, Washington, USA
POETRY JOURNAL
PoetryXCollage
Volume Two
Each issue of PoetryXCollage presents six movements of work by artists and curators. Page spreads are meant to be free zones of thinking where the contributor has chosen all elements of the layout: font, image place, composition, etc. In this issue: Anthony D. Kelly, Castle Bar, County Mayo, Ireland l Carla Reyes, Astoria, New York, USA l Janice McDonald, Denver, Colorado, USA l Samantha Brown, Blackrock, County Louth, Ireland l Laura Tafe, Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA l Collaborations by Cathy Greenhalgh, Thomas Mayer, Rosemary Rae, Anthony D. Kelly, & Cheryl Chudyk
NEW BOOK
Wallflowers: Collage as Street Art
Wallflowers: Collage as Street Art explores the intersection of collage and street art. Christopher Kurts recalls the formation of the Kolaj Street Krewe from its creation at Kolaj Fest New Orleans to a guerilla art project during the COVID-19 pandemic to an artist residency for Street Artists. The book contains examples of collage as street art by twenty-four artists from eight countries. MORE
BOOK
Artists in the Archives
Local history museums, archives, and collections are vital to building healthy communities and to anchoring our understanding of the world around us in the place where we live, work, and play. Collage artists have unique skills that are particularly useful in our historical moment. Artists in the Archives contains artworks and commentary as well as an extensive essay by Ric Kasini Kadour about the project that brought twenty-three artists from seven countries to make twenty-four collage prints referencing history material in the archives of the Henry Sheldon Museum. The essay reflects on the role artists can play in the interpretation and presentation of historic material in light of this history. MORE
BOOK
Politics in Collage
In a time where the challenges facing us as individuals and communities have grown to seemingly insurmountable levels, further exacerbated by the increasing toxicity of the political climate, artists are using their work to confront these challenges by engaging their viewers in a higher level of discourse. Through a virtual residency, twenty-five artists created collage works examining complex socio-political issues that contemporary society is contending with, in order to spark meaningful dialogue and inspire deeper engagement. MORE
BOOK
Empty Columns Are a Place to Dream
A companion book to the project of the same name, Ric Kasini Kadour unpacks what monuments are and their role in our communities. The book shows what happens when collage artists reimagine monuments as sites of truth and reconciliation. The book features the collages of eighteen international artists made a series of collages that reimagined the empty column in the center of Birr, County Offaly, Ireland. 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. Artists collage dollar bills into flowers and mine material remnants to tell stories about home economics. 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
COLLAGE BOOK
Tissue Box:
A Pandemic Response
Boite à mouchoir: Une réponse à la pandémie. In Spring 2020, as the world was going into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Quebec Collagiste Virginie Maltais felt a deep need for a point of reference. Her solution was a project that asked collage artists from around the world to make a collage using the top of a tissue box. "Small projects are important. You regain your courage and hope when you start and manage to finish something. There is no small project. We do big projects with lots of little steps. Step by step, we move forward. Together. And it is all of these small steps, together, that led to the creation of this book." Maltais worked with Kolaj Institute and Kasini House to produce a bilingual book about the project. MORE
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
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.
