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FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY
Entropy & Vacancy
Chicago, Illinois, USA. Peyton Rack explores the relationship between entropy and vacancy. Rack is drawn to the sensational quality of physically uninhabited and undefined spaces. The act of visually depicting these environments, combined with those of the subconscious, engages this duality. MORE
COLLAGE ON VIEW
Mixed States
at The Little Theater Café Gallery in Rochester, New York, USA, 2-29 September 2021. What are “mixed states"? The term can reference mood, geography, the arrangement of matter, how we fluctuate and view the world over time. The exhibit by sisters Nina and Sari Gaby explores the mixed terrains of Sari’s traditional landscapes and the mixed-media of Nina’s abstract collage. The question of emotional reactivity figures into these works, the shadows of the Scottish Highlands, the whimsy of tiny books layered onto vintage ephemera, the uncommon use of porcelain as abstract image, the startling reality of nature and the always changing landscape of visual narrative. MORE
FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY
Familiar, yet Challenging
North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, USA. Mark Vargo seeks to create images that are familiar, yet challenging. He writes, "I create artwork that draws you into the known and then reveals details and perspectives that are unexpected to the viewer. My work is made from found and collected materials, often drawn together by coarse thread. This act of finding and drawing together is essential to my process, an act at once both therapeutic and empowering–giving life to discarded and unnoticed things–elevating paper, thread and other materials to the level of art." MORE
CALL TO ARTISTS
Artist Lab: Historical Societies
Deadline: Sunday, September 26, 2021. Historical Societies are the keepers of a region’s material legacy. More than collections of stuff, historical societies are communities of knowledge. Community-based and often volunteer-driven, these groups offer a trove for contemporary artists seeking to make work that uses history to speak to a community. How can artists help activate these vital community organizations and create experiences that allow the public to better understand their community? How can artists tell unseen stories from the past that fill in gaps left out by historical archives? How can artists create projects that support the viewer’s negotiation of divergent histories? In this Lab, artists will work with four rural historical societies in Vermont to develop proposals for contemporary art projects. Participating Artists will complete the lab with a proposal for a contemporary art project that will be considered for a Fall 2022 exhibition at the Southern Vermont Arts Center’s Wilson Museum. MORE
FROM KOLAJ 33
Call & Response
The poetry and collage project of long-time friends Trish Crapo and Missy-Marie Montgomery started as a response to the pandemic and then it was a response to the killing of George Floyd, and then a response to the increasingly toxic political climate of 2020. The poetry is lyrical and dream-like; peaceful. “In the face of so much crisis, the choice seemed to be about feeling versus shutting down,” the duo explained. “The act of creation itself was a response to the destructive forces at work during this time, and an antidote to despair.” The pair speak about their project in Kolaj 33. MORE
COLLAGE ON VIEW
Collage Works
Ginger Sedlarova and Seema Shah at The Gallery at The Cultch in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 1-30 September 2021. Sedlarova considers herself "both a collage artist and a storyteller. Sometimes my work is a short story, sometimes it’s a novel. But it’s always surreal, a love affair with the combination of knife, paper and glue that allows me to construct scenes of absurdity and drama." Shah is "innately drawn to the piecing together of disparate elements to form a new meaning and aesthetic–trying to create something of value from scraps that would otherwise be discarded. The process itself is a metaphor for many aspects of my life and self." MORE
FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY
Showing You All the "Ah"
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Colleen Hammond writes about her work, "The dictionary defines 'ah' as an expression used to describe delight, relief, regret or contempt. Our everyday world is filled to the brim with objects and people and places that demand nothing more of us than the acknowledgment of their existence. In my work I am trying to show you all the 'ah' that I see." MORE
Calls to Artists
Deadline: 26 September 2021
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Deadline: 11 September 2021
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Current Issue
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. We not only hope you enjoy the articles and images in Kolaj #33, we hope it leads you to asking great questions.
PRINT MAGAZINE
Kolaj 33
Handling from “The Lives of Dahlias” series by Leslie Fry is on the cover of Kolaj 33. The blending of human, natural, and architectural motifs is a hallmark of Surrealism. Fry steps into this arena with a sword of feminist thinking and cuts through the dogma. Her work shows how Surrealism can reorient our thinking about nature. An article about her work appears in the issue.
Each issue of Kolaj Magazine shows how collage artists are making their way through the world. International in scope, we explore all aspects of collage and its impact on society and culture. MORE
Recent Publications
NEW BOOK
Oh, Money! Money!
by Eleanor H. Porter
Kolaj Institute is pleased to announce the publication of Oh, Money! Money!by Eleanor H. Porter and illustrated by a collective of collage artists. In Porter’s 1918 novel, a Chicago multi-millionaire struggles to decide to whom he should leave his money. The book is a time capsule of early 20th century American life with a strong focus on the lives of women and observations about material culture and communities before the rampant consumerism of the 1920s and the Great Depression. To illustrate the book, Kolaj Institute organized a residency that brought together ten artists who worked collaboratively to make sixty-three collages that interpret Porter’s novel for a 21st century audience. MORE
FROM ARTSHOP
Kolaj Year Eight Collectors Pack
NOW AVAILABLE! The Kolaj Magazine Year Eight Collectors Pack includes Issues 29, 30, 31, and 32. 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. MORE
BOOK
The Money $how: Cash, Labor, Capitalism & Collage
The Money $how juxtaposes contemporary artwork against fragments of history and literature as a way of showing how collage can help us deconstruct culture and understand the world differently. Artists collage dollar bills into flowers and mine material remnants to tell stories about home economics. MORE
SPECIAL EDITION
World Collage Day 2021
In honour of World Collage Day, May 8, 2021, Kolaj Magazine is releasing a special edition of the magazine. The Special Edition is full of Cut-Out Pages and stories from inspiring collage artists. MORE
Note: The World Collage Day Special Edition is not included in a regular Kolaj Magazine subscription.
COLLAGE BOOK
Unfamiliar Vegetables: Variations in Collage
Unfamiliar Vegetables is a collection of collage where each of the fifty artists interpreted, in their own way, Carlotta Bonnecaze’s 1892 Carnival float design Familiar Vegetables. Project organizer Christopher Kurts observed, “Unfamiliar Vegetables is an experiment in controlled chaos….tiny variations within each artist’s creative sphere accumulate until the outcomes are as unique as the people creating them.” MORE
COLLAGE COMMUNITIES
The International Directory of Collage Communities
The 104-page book is a survey of collage networks, guilds, communities, and projects as well as online efforts and groups focused on collage research. For each community, the directory presents their key activities, mission, how to join, and a bit of their history. Copious images illustrate the book. MORE
BOOK
Radical Reimaginings
The curators of the 96-page book invited artists who use collage in their practice to put forward a work of art that offers a visual narrative that speaks to the unprecedented change unfolding in 2020. An essay by Ric Kasini Kadour reflects upon collage's unique ability to imagine new realities. Forty artists from nine countries and multiple Indigenous peoples—Salish-Kootenai/Métis-Cree/Sho-Ban, Tlingit/Nisga’a, Oglala/Lakota, and Seneca Nation—offer a variety of perspectives. The voices of Black, Latinx, Native, and white Americans mingle with those from Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Canada, France, and Germany. Artwork is accompanied by a statement in which the artists describe how they want to reimagine the world. MORE
BOOK
Collage Magic
by Emma Anna
Part autobiography, part fantasy, Emma Anna’s vision of The New Old World (aka The NOW) fuses vintage ephemera with modern imaging technologies. Emma shapes this strange world by using the pen tool from Adobe Photoshop as her magic wand, in the process declaring herself to be a “collage magician”. Part artist book, part document of art making, Collage Magic, from La Casa Verde Editions, is Emma Anna’s journey through magic and art. MORE
BOOK
Revolutionary Paths
When the collage is presented in exhibition, it is often done so without the critical framework granted other mediums. In "Revolutionary Paths: Critical Issues in Collage", exhibition curator Ric Kasini Kadour presents examples of collage that represent various aspects and takes on the medium. Each work in the exhibition represents the potential for deeper inquiry and further curatorial exploration of the medium. MORE
BOOK
Cultural Deconstructions
Collage is unique as a medium in that it uses as its material artifacts from the world itself. To harvest those fragments, the artist must first deconstruct culture; they must select, cut, and remove the elements they do not wish to use and then reconstruct work that tells a new story. In "Cultural Deconstructions: Critical Issues in Collage", exhibition curator Ric Kasini Kadour presents examples of collage artists who are deconstructing identity as a way to critique culture. MORE
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.
