RESIDENCY UPDATE
Collage on Screen Artist Residency
A five-week, virtual/online residency with Kolaj Institute in August 2024
Collage in Motion is a project of Kolaj Institute that explores collage and the moving image, a broad, loosely defined category that includes animations, film cut-ups, collage film, stop-motion, animated GIFs, documentaries about collage artists, and other forms of media in which collage–as medium or genre–is present. We see our role as not one of defining “collage in motion” but as one of asking what “collage in motion” can be. The project manifests as articles in Kolaj Magazine, an online directory, workshops, residencies, and screenings. Artists with practice of Collage in Motion are encouraged to submit to the online directory.
Collage on Screen Artist Residency is a five-week program designed to support artists who want to develop a practice that includes motion in their artmaking. In five virtual meetings over five weeks and through ongoing, online discussion, we will explore the history of collage on screen and the various ways that collage makes its way to the screen and how collage artists operate in the space of moving images and sound. Unlike two-dimensional art, collage on screen is temporal art, meaning it moves through time. Because of this, viewers experience Collage on Screen not as a linear series of images but as an immersive experience. This residency asks, How do we, as collage artists, make artwork that speaks to that?
Designed for collage artists, professional development sessions focus on artist practice, how to develop a story; and how to develop moving images and sound to tell that story.
Residents will make a 30 second film that will be considered for Collage on Screen at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2025. If selected, the film will be included in Kolaj Institute’s traveling screening program. Artists may also choose to make longer works which will also be considered.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Kolaj Institute is excited to announce the fourteen artists from Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Canada, and across the United States who were selected to participate in this five-week virtual residency.
18″x30″x12″; toys, wood, form core, rope, fabric, epoxy clay, acrylic paint, tea lights, wire, viola case; 2019. Courtesy of the artist.
Diane Canfield Bywaters, a distinguished artist, and professor emerita of art from the University of Wisconsin—Stevens Point, has left an indelible mark on the art world through her exceptional career spanning over forty-five years. With a profound passion for both en plein air landscape painting and captivating assemblage pieces, Bywaters has continuously pushed the boundaries of artistic expression. Holding a Master’s degree in Fine Arts with a concentration in painting from Washington University in St. Louis, Bywaters hails from Kansas City, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Renowned for her en plein air landscape paintings, Bywaters has garnered acclaim for her immersive experience in this art form. Notably, she stands as a trailblazer in the realm of U.S. national park artist-in-residencies, having been selected for prestigious programs at iconic locations such as Rocky Mountain National Park, Hawaii Volcanoes, and Alaska’s Denali Wilderness Area. Her artistic endeavors have also taken her overseas, with notable residencies in Italy and France, enriching her creative vision and influencing her diverse body of work. Recognized for her exceptional contributions to the art community, Bywaters has been honored with the University’s Excellence in Teaching Award and the Scholarship Award, acknowledging her extensive exhibition record and residency involvement. Her artistic journey took an exciting turn fifteen years ago when she delved into the realm of 3D collage art (assemblage). Embracing a new medium, she found inspiration in the collaborative and expressive nature of this art form, infusing her pieces with political statements and environmental themes. Bywaters’s distinctive approach to assemblage work involves a blend of intuition, found objects, epoxy clay, and acrylic paint, resulting in captivating pieces that resonate with viewers on a profound level. With an impressive exhibition history that includes solo exhibitions in major cities such as Chicago, Las Vegas, Charlotte, and various locations across Wisconsin, Bywaters continues to captivate audiences with her thought-provoking and visually stunning creations. Her work has found a home in esteemed collections such as United Airlines, 3M, State Department, General Motors Corporation, and Pepsi Corporation, a testament to the widespread recognition. She resides in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and she shares her historic home with her husband, jewelry designer Tom Dailing, and a menagerie of pets, embodying a life deeply intertwined with creativity.
Courtesy of the artist.
Hillary Carlip is a multi-disciplinary artist. Her career has taken many successful twists and turns; as a best-selling author of six books, an award-winning digital innovator, and a visual artist with works featured in museums and touring exhibits alongside Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst, as well as in galleries and permanent collections. Carlip has been creating unconventional works in various mediums including performance art, found-object assemblage, digital art, collage, and presently, animated collage.
36″x30″; photocollage, wood panel, resin; 2019. Courtesy of the artist.
Christine De Vuono is a multimedia artist working with drawing, sculpture, collage, installation, and photography. The materials of each project are chosen specifically to engage viewers in new ways to examine societal norms and values. Her work utilizes antiquated practices and mindful labor, emphasizing the disparity between past traditions and present efficiencies. Often focusing on the transitions we face in life, her work celebrates the needs of the psyche for beloved care and lived beauty. De Vuono’s work was a finalist in the Salt Spring National Art Prize, British Columbia, featured in the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, and has been shown in London, UK, Toronto, Ottawa, in her hometown of Guelph, and in online forums. She completed a Bachelor of Arts (With Distinction) in Studio Art from the University of Guelph and an MFA at the University of Waterloo.
2732×2048 pixels; digital photography, computer animation; 2024. Courtesy of the artist.
Darren Douglas Floyd was born in Ann Arbor, MI in 1972. He received his B.A. in Women’s Studies from the College of Wooster in 1994 and his M.F.A. in Film and Media Arts from Temple University in 2001. Floyd is an artist whose studio practice combines animation, digital video, and zines. His creative practice redeploys subversive feminist production strategies to interrogate masculinity. CancerGram, his 2017 Instagram diary based on having stage 4 cancer, is an experimental storytelling practice disseminated through social media. His 2020 social media essay, Drastic Treatment, considers the Donald Trump era through the lens of androgen deprivation therapy. His current project is an attempt to liberate animation from the computer lab, utilizing mobile platforms for en plein air animation production.
1542×2102 pixels; digital photography, ink; 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
Mai Hindawi (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist and writer from Cairo, Egypt currently living in the UK. In 2019 they self-published a poetry collection called Unbecoming which included a collaboration with an illustrator Eugenia Cararro. Since then they have developed an interest in found language and archival practices (such as erasure poetry) as well as photo collage and hand-drawn animation. They have created over 100 erasure and experimental poems, many of which live on their Instagram and website. In 2022, they created a series of erasure poems queering the letters of Vita Sackville West and Virginia Woolf which are held at The Keep in Sussex. Since 2022, they have participated in an Arvon residency in Collage & Poetry which introduced zine-making into their practice, and in 2023 started a blog that primarily hosts personal essays and zines with unique hand-drawn animations and collage animations to accompany each post. In 2024, one of their short stories If memories bore children and loop animations was published on Kandaka Blog. They are currently writing a long-form erasure poem based on Oscar Wilde’s letter De Profundis and co-producing an instrumental album and accompanying animated short film with the musician and illustrator MMKN.
photocopies on paper, glue, glass; 2005. Courtesy of the artist.
Marria Khan is an animator, illustrator, and interdisciplinary artist based in Lahore, Pakistan. She graduated from the National College of Arts in Pakistan in 2006 with honors in Painting preceded by a diploma in Animation in 2005 from the same institution. Khan’s BFA thesis was a culmination of her practices in painting and animation and she has continued working in these mediums since then. With a more traditional approach to animation, Khan has also worked with the themes of conflict and environmental issues and their repercussions. Her work has been featured in several international and national newspapers and platforms some of which include TIME (The Cartoons Pakistani TV Was Afraid to Show), AFP (Pakistani animators tackle tough social issues), London Independent Film Festival, The Boston International Film Festival, TEDX Video, and Bugsplat week which engaged 30 painters, photographers, journalists and lawyers to bring the reality of drone attacks. Recent selected art shows, projects, and festivals Khan has participated in include the Immersive at The Holy Art Gallery in London (2024), Metaverse Bodies (2023) and Post Reality (2022) at the Lahore Digital Arts Festival and Anarkali is Alive supported by the World Monuments Fund, New York (2021). Khan is also a member of the Awami Art collective, a group of artists, academics, and activists intervening in the public space in Pakistan since 2015.
Courtesy of the artist.
Shaan Hameed Khan is a Boston-based graphic designer and artist whose work bridges traditional narratives and contemporary design. With a Master’s in Graphic Design from Suffolk University, Khan has developed a distinct style that merges digital and analog techniques, drawing inspiration from both modern and classical art forms. Her Graphic Design thesis project, “Birds of Paradise,” explored adapting an ancient story for a younger audience through the medium of collage. Inspired by the classical poem Mantiq-al-Tayr (The Conference of the Birds) from the canon of Islamic philosophical literature, the project highlighted universal themes of love, truth, and unity by weaving together traditional Islamic art patterns, colors, and symbols through the medium of collage. This project was successfully exhibited at Midway Artist Studios in Boston as part of a collective exhibition called ATLS in Spring of 2024. Khan’s creative journey has led to notable accomplishments. She has illustrated and designed for Suffolk University’s social media platforms. Her work has been featured in prestigious exhibitions, including the Boston Art Book Fair and the Heritage Suwon Poster Design Exhibition in Korea. At the Boston Art Book Fair in November 2023, she presented two self-published books and participated in a collective publication representing Suffolk University’s graphic design program. Her poster for the Heritage Suwon exhibition was showcased alongside international talents at the Suwon Traditional Culture Center in South Korea. In addition to her exhibition history, Khan has contributed significantly to various design projects. She planned and illustrated a yearly interfaith calendar for the Interfaith and Intercultural Organization, promoting it through conventions and social media from 2013 to 2016. Khan has undergone seven years of rigorous training in traditional Islamic arts, including Arabic calligraphy in the Kufi and Naskh scripts, biomorphic design, geometric pattern construction, and Persian and Mughal manuscript illustration. Her mastery of these techniques enriches her design thinking. Her dedication to integrating traditional Islamic arts into her modern designs highlights her commitment to preserving cultural heritage while pushing the boundaries of contemporary art. Khan’s work continues to inspire and captivate audiences, reflecting her passion for design and her ability to convey complex narratives through visually compelling creations.
7″x5″; collage, acrylic paint, cyanotype; 2023. Courtesy of the artist.
Bella LaMontagne is an analog collage artist based in Shelburne Falls Massachusetts. Her art and process are based in Naturphilosophie, which explores the relationship between Nature and the mind. Through the medium of collage, LaMontagne breaks down the binary between humans and the wider biotic community. Her work speaks to the human right to roam, exploring the importance of access to natural spaces. She does this by combining fragments of symbolism, folklore, mythology, and contemporary material, to guide viewers through a thought-provoking visual narrative that remystifies the world. In March of 2023, LaMontagne participated in Kolaj Institute’s Folklore and Collage Residency where she explored the folklore of the Banshee to create work that responded to environmental grief. During the Fall of 2023, LaMontagne designed artwork for the town of Greenfield, MA light pole banner project, Emmanuel Music’s Coloring Bach coloring book, and the Northampton Survival Center’s postcard project. In July of 2024, LaMontagne was commissioned to create a collage for the musician Ray LaMontagne’s single, “Long Way Home”, which was filmed for the single’s music video. LaMontagne is a Finalist in the 9th edition of the Boynes Artist Award: Young Artist Category. Her work has been published in multiple publications including, the Red Ogre Review, the Indianapolis Review, the Santa Clara Review, and Photosynthesis Magazine. LaMontagne has exhibited her work both regionally and internationally.
4273×5831 pixels; found ready-made images, magazine and book cuttings; 2019. Courtesy of the artist.
Tonya Dee McDaniel is a “Chamoale” artist born and raised in the remote island of Guam since 1999. Growing up in the age of rapid technological advancement and consumerism, McDaniel has been highly fascinated by the images of “what life is supposed to be like” according to the screen. She took up drawing at a young age as to escape her at-times-stressful reality. While studying towards a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts from the University of Guam, McDaniel was drawn to the surrealistic imagery of collage. Though McDaniel formally studied and practiced the mediums of ink, charcoal, and printmaking; with collage, she has been free to play with the imagination. Much of her art addresses themes of love, attraction, family, individuality, and emotion. Through the accessibility of collage and mixed media art, she wants to convey the message that anyone could create new meaning in their lives and come to understand themselves.
Courtesy of the artist.
Rymma Mylenkova is a Philadelphia-based visual artist, curator, and educator from Sumy, Ukraine. Mylenkova holds a Master’s degree in Psychology and a Doctorate degree in Education. As a Fulbright research scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, Stuart Weitsman School of Design, she investigated the impact of community public art in urban places as a social development tool. Her artwork has been shown in numerous exhibitions including at the Imagine Point, AcademArt, ZPAP, and TechnoPark Galleries in Ukraine and Poland. She is the lead muralist on a current project for Mural Arts Philadelphia and has created numerous urban murals in Ukraine. She has recently curated art projects for the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York, the Center for Media at Risks, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, and Mural Arts Philadelphia. Active in both academic and diverse cultural environments, Mylenkova is engaged in manifold international teamwork and collaborations including acting as the general chair of the annual International scientific conference “Design Functions in Modern World,” working as an art curator for the International Poster Competition “The Art of Living Together,” and engaged as the project creator and scientific researcher on the “Digital Archiving of Monuments as objects of Public Memorialization for the Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of Ukraine.”
11″x8.5″; magazine cutouts; 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
Sara C. Rolater (scrola) is a graduate of Rice University and received their MFA in fiction from the University of Houston, where they served as an assistant editor in fiction for Gulf Coast and where they have taught composition, literature, and creative writing since 2011. They have taught creative writing for Inprint, Writespace, Writers in the Schools, and Grackle & Grackle, written for Citysearch Houston and offcite.org, and been a fellow at the Writing Immersion Retreat in Bali and at the Byrdcliffe Artist in Residence program in Woodstock, New York. Their work has appeared in Ghost Town, Gulf Coast, and Our Space: Shorts and Poetry from the Houston Community. They have been a consultant in the Creative Writing Department at the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts since 2014, teaching introductory and advanced fiction workshops as well as electives in creative nonfiction, journalism, collage, clothing, horror writing, music writing, world-building, Disney texts, and musicals, with their posts as well as their students’ posts on these subjects available on the blog the pva creative writing review. They are currently at work on the visual art hybrid project The Corrections in Collage, the hybrid genre nonfiction-memoir The Stephen King of Rock ‘n’ Roll derived from their blog Long Live the King, and the queer YA horror-thriller novel Nuns Are Hot Right Now.
7.75″x10.5″; collage made of cut-and-pasted printed paper; 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
Spencer Steiner is a transgender multi-disciplinary visual and performance artist based in Brooklyn, NY. A maximalist aesthetic is a defining feature of his mixed media collages and works onstage. Steiner’s art explores topics of identity, neurodivergence, and addiction through hyper-surrealist imagery. Obscuring viscerally uncomfortable topics through the whimsical juxtaposition of playful and absurdist imagery, Steiner seeks in his collages to subvert the social construction of gender, sexuality, and taboos surrounding substance abuse. Cheeky collections of collaged acrylic fingernails and epoxy resin pieces (sold at Brooklyn markets and popups) express Steiner’s comedy aesthetic, showcasing his art woven with contemporary imagery, pop culture, and kitsch elements. In his performances, a quirky personal language balances challenging, often traumatic stories with Steiner’s (aka Menthol Menthol) whimsical aesthetic — mirroring the extravagant character of his collages. In 2019 Steiner co-founded the drag ensemble Unforgivable Emotional Carnivore with fellow Brooklyn artists Pinwheel Pinwheel and God Complex. Known for absurdist spectacles, Unforgivable Emotional Carnivore first performed at The Vault (Brooklyn) and has been showcased in BroadwayWorld and at numerous venues in Brooklyn and New York City, including a residency at Nancy Manocherian’s The Cell Theatre. Steiner makes the collage posters announcing shows, which tease the topic being presented. A second drag troupe, Uma it’s a trap, where Steiner is a founder and producer, expands traditional theatrical methods and technical innovations to amplify surrealist narratives. Steiner’s drag has been featured at various venues, including Bushwig, Bitchfest, in Rachel Rampelman’s project “Life is Drag,” in Missleidy Rodriguez’ “Class of ‘24 Yearbook Project” and highlighted in the Brooklyn nightlife publication th0tyssey.
13″x10″; paper; 2023. Courtesy of the artist.
Leniqueca Welcome is a Trinidadian collage artist, photographer, and political anthropologist currently living in Washington DC. Her visual work, research, and teaching are anchored in the Caribbean and explore themes of colonialism, postcolonial governance, blackness, criminalization, and world-building. Her collages involve intimate manipulation of her own photographs or archival material such that her hand is unapologetically present in the final product abdicating the role of objective documentarian. While earlier collages were produced digitally using Photoshop, she now works predominately by hand. Many of the methods of composition and attention to scale, texture, and materiality were honed while studying architecture, however, her photography and collage practice developed more centrally in 2016. She has exhibited her collage work at the Screening Scholarship Media Festival and has taught workshops on collage in the US, Trinidad, Japan, Germany, and China. Leniqueca is currently working on her first monograph which is both an ethnography and an exploration of the political potential collage.
11″x8″; woven collage; 2023. Courtesy of the artist.
Rachelle Wunderink is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in Niagara Falls, Canada. She recently finished her Masters of Fine Arts at York University, where she was awarded The Joseph Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, (SSHRC) for her thesis exhibition. Over the past 10 years, she has co-founded two separate artist collectives working mostly abroad in Taipei, Taiwan, and Grand Rapids, Michigan. She has three upcoming solo exhibitions at Niagara Artist Centre (2024), IA&A Hillyer in Washington D.C (2024), and Eastern Edge Artist-Run Centre in St.Johns (2025), and was featured in the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art’s Jump-Off exhibition, and Young Art’s Taipei with Archetype Gallery. She was recently featured in Artist Responding To Art Magazine among other publications. Rachelle is a proud mother of a two-year-old and a newborn and can be found in her studio listening to podcasts such as Normal Gossip, or This American Life.
FACULTY
Robbie Morgan
Robbie Morgan holds an MFA in Film and Theatre Arts with an emphasis in Film Production from The University of New Orleans and a BS in Entertainment Industry with an emphasis in Audio Production from the University of Southern Mississippi. Morgan is interested in the power of visual storytelling and how film can move audiences. He also extensively researches film history and theory. He has taught film in a variety of settings, from school-aged children to university students. He believes anyone with motivation can learn to make a film and use this medium to express ideas. He won awards for Best Picture and Best Editing at the 2021 UNO Film Fest. His research interests include instructional design and pedagogy; Queer film theory; Kuleshov and Gestalt psychology and their role in movies; and applications of practical effects on modern productions. Robbie Morgan lives and works in New Orleans.
Nancy Bernardo
Nancy Bernardo currently lives in Rochester, New York and has been a practicing graphic designer for 22 years. She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been an educator for 14 years. Bernardo’s work has been commissioned for book cover designs such as: Checking In/Checking Out (NO Books, 2010), New Orleans Review Art + Literary Magazine (2009-2014), Deconstructing Brad Pitt (Bloomsbury Press, 2011 and discussed in Kolaj #11) and History of Design: Beyond the Canon (Bloomsbury Press, 2018). Bernardo has been recognized and awarded honors through Graphis Design Annual, Print Regional Design Awards, Design Observer 50 Books 50 Covers, HOW In-House Design Award, HOW Best of International Design and STA 100. Her work has also been exhibited in Rochester, New Orleans, Seattle, Chicago, New York City and in the United Kingdom.
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 and 2024. 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. Since opening the Kolaj Institute Gallery in New Orleans in March 2024, Kadour has curated the “Grand Opening Exhibition” (March 9-April 14, 2024); “Collage the Planet: Environmentalism in Art” (April 19-May 26, 2024); “Magic in the Modern World” (June 1-August 11, 2024); and Sewage & Water Board Billing Issues: Collage by New Orleans Artists” (June 8-July 6, 2024) at Second Story Gallery. 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