RESIDENCY UPDATE
Photography & Collage Virtual Artist Residency
A virtual, four-week collage artist residency in September 2025
Since May 2024, Kolaj Institute has been investigating the intersection of photography and collage through a series of exhibitions and artist residencies in partnership with the New Orleans Photo Alliance. This research has been guided by the idea, “The mediums of collage and photography are bound together in an ongoing dialogue. The photographer makes pictures of the world. The collagist remixes those pictures to tell a story about the world we live in. What happens when the photographer begins collaging their own work? What happens when the collage artist picks up the camera?” We found artists engaged in a variety of techniques and approaches: collage as process; making art with family archives and found photographs; using alternative processes like cyanotypes and Gelli print transfers; and challenging how we think about images in a world flooded with them. In doing this, the artists invited viewers to consider questions of identity and gender; family and memory; the materiality of photography; and history and artist process.
The Photography & Collage Virtual Artist Residency invited photographers and collage artists to come together in dialogue, learn from one another, and make artwork for a series of exhibitions that explore the intersection of collage and photography. Over the course of a month, we asked, What happens when a collagist picks up the camera? What happens when a photographer collages their pictures? Presentations will explore collage in theory, artist practice, the ecosystem of art, the state of photography, and the history of photography and collage. Artists shot with their own camera, in whatever process they chose (film & develop or digital & print), and then made collage with the photographs they took.
During the residency, artists made an artwork that will be exhibited at Kolaj Institute’s Gallery. The exhibition will take place in December 2025 as part of PhotoNOLA 2025, an annual celebration of photography in New Orleans, produced by the New Orleans Photo Alliance in partnership with museums, galleries, and alternative venues citywide.
The residency was led by Dafna Steinberg, MFA, professor of darkroom photography at Delaware County Community College, and Lance Rothstein, a photojournalist and street artist who operates the darkroom and teaches photography and collage workshops at the Morean Art Center in Saint Petersburg, Florida. The project is being curated by Ric Kasini Kadour, Director of Kolaj Institute and a 2020-2021 Curatorial Fellow of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and produced in partnership with the New Orleans Photo Alliance.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Kolaj Institute accepted fourteen artists from Brazil, Canada, and across the United States for this four-week virtual residency. They were:
Adriana Gordillo, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA | Anindita Sengupta, Rancho Palos Verdes, California, USA |David D’Agostino, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA | Gerardo Morantes, New York, New York, USA | Heidi Smith, Middletown Springs, Vermont, USA | Inga Finch, Panacea, Florida, USA | Julia Maciel Mendes, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil | Leah Flanagan, Dallas, Texas, USA | Lisa Sibley, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, USA | Phyllis Schwartz, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada | Rebecca C. Steiner, Old Lyme, Connecticut, USA | Riley Kizziar, Everett, Washington, USA | Sheryl Watson, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA | Stephanie L. Paine, Lafayette, Louisiana, USA.
ABOUT THE FACULTY & ORGANIZERS
Dafna Steinberg
Dafna Steinberg holds an MFA in Socially Engaged Studio Art from the Moore College of Art and Design, an MA in Photography and Urban Cultures from the Centre for Urban and Community Research at Goldsmiths, and a BA in Liberal Arts from Hampshire College. She is currently an adjunct professor of darkroom photography at Delaware County Community College. Her collage and photography work has been shown in solo and group shows in England, Scotland, Slovenia, and the United States. Her artwork has appeared in publications including Death in the Family: An Open Call, edited by E. Aaron Ross (2023); #ICPConcerned: Global Images for a Global Crisis (2021), Create! Magazine #23, among others. Her article, “Report from Miami”, appeared in Kolaj 28. The artist lives and works in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. www.dafnasteinberg.com
Lance Rothstein
Lance Rothstein has been making collages with trash and found objects, then leaving them out on the streets since 2010. A professional photojournalist by trade, he’s worked for many major newspapers and publications throughout the US and Europe, but he returned to his art school roots after moving to Belgium with his wife in 2009 and dove headfirst into producing several forms of Street Art. His artwork has been shown in galleries in Belgium, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. His work has been featured in Wallflowers: Collage as Street Art, Be a Pal magazine, Unfamiliar Vegetables, the World Collage Day 2018 Special Edition, and Circulaire 132. Works of his are also in the permanent collection of the Doug + Laurie Kanyer Art Collection in Yakima, Washington as well as The Schwitters’ Army Collection of Collage Art in Sanquhar, Scotland, and the Postcards for Democracy traveling collection by Mark Mothersbaugh and Beatie Wolf. www.rayjohnsonfanclub.com
Ric Kasini Kadour
Ric Kasini Kadour, a 2021 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual 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). In September 2023, he curated “Word of Mouth: Folklore, Community and Collage” at A’ the Airts in Sanquhar, Scotland. 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
New Orleans Photo Alliance
The mission of the New Orleans Photo Alliance (NOPA) is to encourage the understanding and appreciation of photography through exhibitions, opportunities, and educational programs. They operate a darkroom, gallery and studio/event space. NOPA produces PhotoNOLA, the Festival of Photography in New Orleans, in partnership with museums, galleries, and venues citywide. Showcasing work by photographers near and far, the festival includes exhibitions, workshops, lectures, a portfolio review, and more. Learn more at www.neworleansphotoalliance.org and www.photonola.org.
Kolaj Institute
The mission of Kolaj Institute is to support artists, curators, and writers who seek to study, document, & disseminate ideas that deepen our understanding of collage as a medium, a genre, a community, and a 21st century movement. We operate a number of initiatives meant to bring together community, investigate critical issues, and raise collage’s standing in the art world. www.kolajinstitute.org