COLLAGE ON VIEW
Cut and Paste: Collage in Santa Barbara
at the Arts Fund Community Gallery of Santa Barbara, California, USA
16 November 2018-11 January 2019
Opening reception: Friday, 16 November, 5-8PM
Collage, derived from the French word “coller”, to glue, is the joining of paper and other found objects onto paper, canvas or wood. Curated by artist and educator Dug Uyesaka, this exhibition is a broad survey of the art form and how it came alive with the influence of Santa Barbara artist William Dole (1917–1983). An internationally recognized collagist, Dole was an educator, mentor and inspiration for many artists from the 1940s to the present.
Dole married bits of paper, handmade pigments and text in lyrical, gracefully crafted images based on the mysteries of the observed and contemplated world around him. The exhibition shows a wide range of area artists who utilize collage as one of their main modes of creative expression. They run the gamut from the traditional joining of paper to paper to the digital and alternative techniques illustrating the extent and breadth of the medium.
Tony Askew’s work in collage is a journey of visual discovery when finding and re-directing the forms or narrative of found fragments. He utilizes found materials with a focus on their haptic qualities and composes them with visual fun and improvised creation. Mary Heebner’s inquisitive approach began as an MFA student under her mentor William Dole, and for over 40 years she has been making collages guided by a sense of place and layers of time. In part, inspired by travels throughout the world, her studio practice stresses a well-honed sensitivity to composition that includes the use of handmade papers, earthen pigments and text.
Angela Holland makes collages by gathering whatever papers, colours and patterns she feels drawn to at the moment. Her process is a trial and error thing; often more about seeing than doing, transforming the ordinary to the extraordinary. Kate Doordan Klavan’s collages are like cryptic maps that explore the frontier between the familiar and the enigmatic, between memory and desire, and innocence and knowledge. William Davies King works with the graphic elements in a book, super-layering an illustration with another illustration. His art begins with rejected books and out of several he makes one, a hybrid, which he calls a bibliolage.
Susan Owens transforms the tin packaging that contains our mass-produced consumer goods into new and more evocative images that may spark a memory or serve as a daily reminder. Her chosen medium reflects her “reduce, reuse, and recycle” aesthetic. Susan Tibbles’ artwork shows the psychological and sociological complexities and metaphors of discarded objects brought to life in a new light. Her work resides in the decontextualization, reconditioning, and enshrining of bits and pieces of American culture. Sue van Horsen’s digital collages are a mash up of images self-produced and gleaned from thrift shops, Ebay and the internet. Her works are often wry, darkly whimsical looks at our collective pasts, surreal present and imagined futures.
“Cut and Paste: Collage in Santa Barbara” is dedicated to the memories of William Dole and Kate Doordan Klavan, who died on 13 October 2018.
(Text adapted from the gallery’s press materials)
INFORMATION
Arts Fund Community Gallery of Santa Barbara
205-C Santa Barbara Street
Santa Barbara, California 93101 USA
(805) 965-7321
Hours:
Monday-Wednesday, by appointment only
Thursday-Sunday, Noon-5PM
Image:
detail of a collage by Kate Doordan Klavan
Courtesy of the Arts Fund of Santa Barbara