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COLLAGE ON VIEW
The Acrobatics of the Divine
Nathan D. Manna at the Jean McDonough Arts Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, 2-20 August 2023. The Acrobatics of the Divine is a 90-foot photomontage that explores themes surrounding homoeroticized male bodies, the queer histories of flowers, and sexuality in religious iconography. The work is inspired by the work of Worcester montage artist and Manna’s fellow School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) alumnus John O’Reilly. In August 2022, the Worcester Arts Council awarded Manna a grant through funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Rescue Plan Act to pursue a project researching O’Reilly and synthesizing that research into artwork. The resulting work takes inspiration from O’Reilly’s use of religious iconography, deconstruction of time, self-portraiture, and thematic exploration of Western queer and gay history, and pairs it with Manna’s research into the queer history and symbolism of flowers. MORE
COLLAGE BOOKS
The ABC of Collage
In this book, Adriana Bermúdez has gathered the three great pillars to become a collage artist, with English and Spanish instructions side by side. Cut-out materials are provided in the last few pages of the book, giving you an excellent excuse to start today. MORE
FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY
Lyrical Line
Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Marla Faith save scraps, torn-up older artwork, teabag tags, shells & beads, fabrics & decorative papers, and leaves & feathers. Faith is a recycler, an upcycler, who finds beauty and meaning by creating harmony as she marries elements together. She creates a balance of organic form, lyrical line, light and dark, diagonal movement, and repeating motifs and shapes. She uses personal symbolism and figurative narrative to create visual poetry. MORE
CALL TO ARTISTS
Collage Magic Artist Residency: New Orleans
A five-day, in-person collage artist residency in New Orleans, Wednesday, 25 October to Sunday, 29 October 2023. What role do artists play in nurturing and supporting magic traditions? Through our artwork, we can share stories, demystify histories, reinforce ancestral or community connections, and celebrate magical practices in ways that are safe, comfortable, and legible. We can make visible cosmologies other than those of the prevailing culture and hold space for alternative worldviews. At various times, such work can be profound acts of resistance, caring, or celebration. With its history of surrealism, collage in particular lends itself to this work. Artists are invited to join us in New Orleans the weekend before Halloween to explore these themes. In addition to a focus on artist practice, we will explore contemporary art that references magic, altar making, and ritual practice and take a walking tour of New Orleans and explore the city as an archive of magic. A visit to the Historic New Orleans Voodoo Museum will afford us the opportunity to consider how contemporary practitioners are engaged with magic traditions in the 21st century. Residents will make collage that will be featured in an upcoming book about magic and collage being published by Kolaj Institute. APPLY TODAY!
COLLAGE IN MOTION
No Beginning or End
Doorwerth, Gelderland, Netherlands. Debora van der Vliet’s work mainly focuses on the theme of non-duality: the interconnectedness of everything that depends on the non-duality, and the unique wholeness of existence which suggests that the personal self is an illusion. She tries to find a design in which this interconnectedness becomes visible. There is a constant flow with no beginning or end, where everything that exists arises in dependence on other existences. In actuality the real non-dual cannot be captured in either images or words, but this endless search to find clarity in interpretation is part of her worldview. MORE
FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY
Mingling Collage & Painting
Novato, California. Janet A Bogardus is fascinated by cities, and by all their contradictions. One of humanity’s most creative inventions, radiant cities offer beauty, creativity, close community and opportunity, while they also exhibit some of our worst qualities–our indifference to suffering and astounding inequalities, our creation of blight and waste. To create the "Tents and Towers" series, Bogardus mingled collage from her iPhone photos with acrylic painting. Each work asks you to question which are most alive and creative: the dazzling towers of downtown, or the tenacious, bedraggled encampments of the unhoused. MORE
ARTIST DIRECTORY
SEE IT! JOIN IT!
COLLAGE ON VIEW
Contemplating Boundaries
at the Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California, USA through 18 August 2023. Boundaries exist in all cultures: often as social constructs serving to regulate our actions, norms, taboos, and space. They may be codified laws, common societal traditions, or even self-imposed rules. “Contemplating Boundaries” brings together artists from across Southern California whose practices contemplate and reflect barriers, labels and limits, whatever their origin or purpose. These artists and their works define our times, providing an authentic lens to view contemporary culture. Jurors TeaYoun Kim-Kassor and Mika Cho reviewed over 400 images from over 100 artists in a blind jurying process. Their careful selection resulted in 40 art pieces created by 28 artists that authentically and compellingly echo contemporary life while interconnected. MORE
KOLAJ T-SHIRTS
NEW AT ARTSHOP
"I Cut Therefore I Kolaj" T-shirt
Since we started Kolaj Magazine in 2011, people have been asking about t-shirts. Well, we finally made one. We are pleased to announce the "I Cut Therefore I Kolaj" T-shirt. We hope you like it and wear it with pride. MORE
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
PoetryXCollage Volume Four 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 August 2023 to receive your copy.
POETRY JOURNAL
PoetryXCollage
Volume Four
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: Jessa Dupuis, Cobble Hill, British Columbia, Canada | John Rigney, Buffalo, New York, USA | Kait O’Brien, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA | sadé powell, Staten Island, New York, USA | Yoomee Ko, New York, New York, USA | Collaborations by Kerrie More, Jessa Dupuis, Julie Byers, Carolina Martins, and Kait O’Brien. On the cover is a detail of Body, a collaboration by Julie Byers, Kerrie More, and Carolina Martins.
NEW PUBLICATION
Collage Saves the World
The artwork in Co llage Saves the World offers viewers an opportunity to reflect on how collage can speak to issues of racism, colorism, ableism, and sexism; the war in Ukraine; climate change and the importance of permaculture; beauty standards and women’s autonomy. The title is the second book from Kolaj Institute’s Politics in Collage Project, a series of residencies, publications, discussions, and exhibitions examining complex socio-political issues that contemporary society is contending with, in order to spark meaningful dialogue and inspire deeper engagement. MORE
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
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. MORE
NEW PUBLICATION
The Awakening
by Kate Chopin & illustrated by contemporary collage artists
Set in New Orleans, Chopin’s 1899 novel, focuses on Edna Pontellier, an upper-class New Orleans woman, torn between expectations and desires. In the beginning of the novel Edna appears to live in a semi-conscious state, trapped in the mundane aspects of her life. As the story evolves, she encounters new people and experiences that create an awakening shift within her. The Awakening, touches on 19th century feminism, identity, and societal themes. MORE
VISIT ARTSHOP!
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.
