Curating Collage Workshop 2024

COLLAGE WORKSHOP

Curating Collage Workshop

A five-week, virtual/online workshop in February & March 2024

Curating is a vital part of art’s function: a curator creates a bridge between artwork and audience. For artists, this process can be confusing and mysterious. The goal of the Curating Collage Workshop is to equip artists with the tools to curate their own work, to work with curators, and build exhibitions that connect with diverse audiences.

The Curating Collage Workshop is a five-week program designed to train artists as curators. In five virtual meetings over five weeks and through ongoing, online discussion, we will explore the fundamentals of curating, how to create critical context for collage, and various strategies for presenting collage to an audience. Topics will include art writing; gallery and museum issues; documenting artist practice; and working with art professionals.

The Curating Collage Workshop will focus on the role of the exhibition: How do we exhibit collage? What is needed from collage to function in a commercial gallery, art center, or museum? How do we build exhibitions that go beyond the “Cut and Paste” group show model that is prevalent today? What does it mean to be artist-centric, medium-centric, or viewer-centric in the presentation of collage in exhibition? And the workshop will explore ideas around Curation: What is a curator and what is their role? How do we introduce collage to viewers? How do we build an audience for collage and generate enthusiasm and a sense of value for the work? How do we take collage where it needs to go to reach the viewers it is intended to reach?

During the workshop, Gallerist Christy Wood, co-owner of LeMieux Galleries, will speak about what she looks for and how she works with artists. Located in Arts District New Orleans, LeMieux Galleries has brought together “seasoned collectors and new art enthusiasts with artists who are committed to their vision” since 1983.

Artists in the workshop will develop their skills by curating a collage from Kolaj Institute’s collection of collage art that will be exhibited in March and April 2024. Artists will also curate artwork from one of the other participants in the workshop and develop an exhibition proposal that will be considered for exhibition at Kolaj Institute’s Gallery in New Orleans.

Participating Artists

Costa Rican artist Mayboll Vargas (image above) works primarily in collage, oil painting, and videoart. She is currently completing a BFA in oil painting the Universidad Continental de las Ciencias y las Arte in San Pedro, Costa Rica. Her work has been shown in Costa Rica, Switzerland and the United States. Vargas also works in exhibition design, planning and installation, including the FATart and FLINTA Art Fairs in Schaffhausen, Switzerland in September 2023. Learn more on Instagram @mayboll.vargas.

Christine Karapetian is a Queens, New York-based artist. Her work includes paper collages, mixed material constructions, and recent, ongoing monoprint workshop explorations. Karapetian has exhibited in galleries in New York City and was included in MAINTENANT 17:Dada Journal: The Peacefire Issue (Three Rooms Press), as well as cover art for several literary publications. Her solo exhibition was at The Jersey City Museum, also a solo-e-journal artist in Diaphanous Press, Micro, 2019. She studied at MICA, Women’s Studio Workshop, and, in September 2023, participated in Kolaj Institute’s Collage Artist Residency in Sanquhar, Scotland. Learn more at the Kolaj Magazine Artist Directory and at www.christinekarapetian.com.

Dunia Barrera is a Spanish collage artist currently living and working in Munich, Germany. Barrera comes from an analog photography background, with her work having been exhibited in a solo exhibition at Photo España in 2002. Now focused on the medium of collage, her work has been exhibited at the Carriage Barn Arts Center in New Canaan, Connecticut, USA and at Gallery Anspach in Brussels, among others. She has been featured by Contemporary Collage Magazine and in the publications of Fragmented Collective. Her work is in the collections of the Anthropology Museum of Madrid, the Subway System of Madrid and the Museum Cristobal Gabarron in Valladolid. Learn more at the Kolaj Magazine Artist Directory and www.duniabarrera.com.

Originally from Guatemala, Hamlet Meneses has been living in Chicago since the late 1980s. In the 1990s, he had representation at major art galleries in Chicago and Puerto Rico and had solo shows at major corporate headquarters in Chicago. He spent time in Barcelona developing his oil painting practice. In 2002, he established GoCreative Programs, a bilingual enrichment initiative for early childhood education in Chicago. After two bouts with cancer in 2013, in 2015 Menses recorded a bilingual music album for children. Released in September 2018, the album achieved critical acclaim, earning a Parents’ Choice Gold Honor award, a spot in Billboard’s top Latin Children’s Albums of 2018, and ranking among the top 10 children’s albums of the year. Currently, his “Possibilities” series of collage, photography, mosaic and oil painting reflects on the theme of hope and creativity in a turbulent world.

Tatiana Briceño Lagos is a Chilean collagist living and working in Santiago. She studied industrial design and holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial Production and Logistics from a university in France. One of her collages was projected onto the wall of the Tate Modern in London in an event paying tribute to Dora Maar. Her work was also part of “Car Art Collage Installation” in the 2022 edition of Sleeping with Art at Hedsor House in Buckinghamshire, England. She has also shown work in Italy and the United States. Her work is on permanent display at Co-work Latam in Miami, Florida, USA. Learn more at www.bricenolagos.com.

---

FACULTY

Ric Kasini Kadour

Ric Kasini Kadour, a 2021 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts Curatorial Fellow, is a writer, artist, publisher, and cultural worker. Working with the Vermont Arts Council, Kadour curated four exhibits: “Connection: The Art of Coming Together” (2017) and Vermont Artists to Watch 2018, 2019 and 2020. In 2017, he curated “The Art of Winter” at S.P.A.C.E. Gallery in Burlington, Vermont. In 2018, Kadour curated “Revolutionary Paths: Critical Issues in Collage” at Antenna Gallery in New Orleans, which bought together collage artists whose work represents the potential for deeper inquiry and further curatorial exploration of the medium; followed in 2019 by “Cultural Deconstructions: Critical Issues in Collage” at LeMieux Galleries in New Orleans, which furthered the conversation; and “Amuse Bouche”, also at LeMieux Galleries in 2023. Since 2018, he has produced Kolaj Fest New Orleans, a multi-day festival & symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society. As Curator of Contemporary Art at Rokeby Museum in Ferrisburgh, Vermont in 2019 and 2020, he curated three exhibitions, “Rokeby Through the Lens” (May 19-June 16, 2019), “Structures” (August 24-October 27, 2019), and “Mending Fences: New Works by Carol MacDonald” (July 12-October 25, 2020). He also curated “Contemporary American Regionalism: Vermont Perspectives” (August 17-October 20, 2019); “Where the Sun Casts No Shadow: Postcards from the Creative Crossroads of Quito, Ecuador” (November 1-30, 2019); and “Many Americas” (August 20-November 27, 2022) in the Wilson Museum & Galleries at the Southern Vermont Arts Center. “The Money $how”, co-curated with Frank Juarez, was presented at the AIR Space Gallery at Saint Kate-The Arts Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (April 10-September 12, 2021). For Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival in Birr, County Offaly, Ireland (August 13-20, 2021), he curated “Empty Columns Are a Place to Dream”, which traveled to the Knoxville Museum of Art in January-February 2022. At 516 ARTS in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Kadour co-curated with Alicia Inez Guzmàn two exhibitions: “Many Worlds Are Born” (February 19-May 14, 2022) and “Technologies of the Spirit” (June 11-September 3, 2022). In 2023 at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Kadour curated “Where the Sun Casts No Shadow: Postcards from the Creative Crossroads of Quito, Ecuador” (January 9-February 16, 2023) and “Mystical Landscape: Secrets of the Vale” (March 17-May 28, 2023), which traveled to A’ the Airts in Sanquhar, Scotland in September 2023. His short film, The Covenant of Schwitters’ Army, debuted at Collage on Screen during Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2023. Kadour is the editor and publisher of Kolaj Magazine. He has written for a number of galleries and his writing has appeared in Hyperallergic, OEI, Vermont Magazine, Seven Days, Seattle Weekly, Art New England (where he was the former Vermont editor) and many others. Kadour maintains an active art practice and his photography, collage, and sculpture have been exhibited in and are part of private collections in Australia, Europe and North America. In January-February 2020, he was artist-in-residence at MERZ Gallery in Sanquhar, Scotland. He holds a BA in Comparative Religion from the University of Vermont. Kadour splits his time between Montreal and New Orleans. www.rickasinikadour.com

Christy Wood 

Christy Wood is the Co-owner and Gallery Director at LeMieux Galleries in New Orleans. She has been with the gallery since 2000 and took over ownership with her business partner Jordan Blanton in 2015. Since its founding in 1983, the mission of LeMieux Galleries has been to unite seasoned collectors and new art enthusiasts with artists who are committed to their vision. Located at the gateway of the Warehouse/Arts District, LeMieux Galleries partners with ADNO (Art District of New Orleans), where Wood currently serves as Secretary, to promote the growth of the district and the community of artists and galleries downtown. In 2023, LeMieux Galleries was recognized by the DDD (Downtown Development District) with a Downtown Award recognizing exceptional accomplishments of Downtown NOLA property owners, businesses, residents, workers, and organizations. During the Curating Collage Workshop, Christy Wood will share her experience as a gallerist and speak about what she looks for and how she works with artists. www.lemieuxgalleries.com