AT KOLAJ FEST
Collage Making with Allan Bealy
A Canadian artist living and working in New York, Allan Bealy spent thirty years as a graphic designer and advertising art director and associate creative director. His art practice now focuses on collage and mixed media as well as continuing to publish, occasionally, under the Benzene Editions banner. A champion of collage, Bealy is an active collaborator and a regular participant in the international collage community.
“The motivation for my collage practice is fluid, often based on an exploration of materials and methods,” writes Allan Bealy. “Humor, dadaist sympathies, colour studies and exploring surfaces and untraditional processes all drive my creative interest. Sharing work is a large part of my daily practice, through collaboration with a wide range of international collage artists, as well as sending my work to magazines, group projects and a large network of mail artists.”
At Kolaj Fest, Bealy will host an informal session in the collage making space. This is a rare opportunity to make collage with a true master of the craft and a dedicated member of the international collage community. As an attendee of Kolaj Fest New Orleans, Bealy hopes “to share ideas and learn different collage-making methods, materials and goals. To discover new publication and exhibition possibilities; meet old friends and make new ones.” Bealy attended the inaugural Kolaj Fest New Orleans in 2018. “There is no better way to meet other artists from around the country and the world, to learn and share creative discoveries and participate in an energy-infused art-making extravaganza.”
About Kolaj Fest New Orleans
Kolaj Fest New Orleans is a multi-day festival and symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society, July 10-14, 2019. Visit the website to learn more, see an overview of the program, and register to attend. Kolaj Fest New Orleans would not be possible without the support of Press Street, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, LeMieux Galleries, Mystic Krewe of Scissors and Glue, Antenna Gallery, Kolaj Magazine and Kasini House. Kolaj Fest New Orleans is made possible through a generous gift from Laurie and Doug Kanyer. WEBSITE
About Allan Bealy
Allan Bealy is a Canadian artist living and working in New York. He was a member of Vehicule Art, the Montreal cooperative art and performance space in the ’70s and has had solo shows in Montreal, New York and Sweden, as well as being represented in numerous group shows. Allan published the pocket arts journal DaVinci in Montreal and Benzene, an arts magazine, after moving to New York in the ’80s. He has spent the last 30 years as a graphic designer and advertising art director and associate creative director, from which he has recently retired. His art practice now focuses on collage and mixed media as well as continuing to publish, occasionally, under the Benzene Editions banner. His book of collages, Le Reve, has just been published by Redfoxpress in Ireland. Allan lives with his wife and two sons in Brooklyn. See more of his work in the Kolaj Magazine Artist Directory and on his website, abealy.tumblr.com.
Images by Allan Bealy (top to bottom):
Madame
10.5″x8″; collage with vintage materials and transfer; 2018
Plate III
12″x9″; collage with vintage materials and transfer; 2018
Youth
12″x9″; collage with vintage materials and transfer; 2018
Images courtesy of the artist.