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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Chris Berens brings his distinctive blend of painting and collage to Jaski Gallery in Amsterdam with the show “Feniks." Among these new works is a massive "Crowning Glory," for which the artist constructed a handmade wooden frame. (Berens was featured in the “Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose” exhibition.) "Feniks" kicks off on Dec. 7 and runs through Dec. 22.
In Kensuke Koike’s ongoing “Single Image Processing” series, the artist alters vintage photographs and postcards with both humorous and surreal results. With just a pair of scissors, the artist is able to remix and recontextualize imagery that is otherwise ordinary or nostalgia-fueled.
Armed with a pair of scissors, Huntz Liu's multilayered paper collages have the viewer guessing which geometric forms offer actual depth or just give the illusion of it. With names like "Color Chasm," "Gravity," and "Boxy Configurations," the artist acknowledges that playful deception that carries across the works in his new show at Thinkspace Projects, which runs through Oct. 5 at the space.
Armed with just paper and scissors, collagist Lola Dupre continues to remix photographs into surreal portraits—with some of the most absorbing results in reimagining household pets. Elsewhere, editorial and advertising projects shows the broad application of Dupre’s distinct sensibilities. She was last featured in Hi-Fructose's print magazine with Volume 28, and has since appeared on our website here.
Armed with two centuries of source material and an X-ACTO knife, Michael Tunk's "Analog Collage" series offers strange, absorbing worlds and portraits. In his "The Unknown Rider" series, seen below, he offers ghostly depictions of the Old West. Elsewhere, he uses unexpected building blocks in his portraits—such as tiny versions of the creature he’s depicting.
The stirring digital collages of Ben Owens are highlighted in a new show at Muneca Arthouse in Patchogue, New York. “Flaw Essence” collects both monochromatic and vibrant experiments from the artist. Owens says this collection of works is part of an attempt to “use bright and sometimes fluorescent colors while trying new techniques, mediums and styles.” The show opens on April 13 at the space.
The collages of Andrew Blucha, who works under the moniker “metafables,” crafts fantastical and dark-surrealist illustrations. The London artist’s motifs include skeletal, mystical blazes, and Victorian fashion. Contained within these are also contemporary winks.
Illustrator-collagist Elzo Durt creates psychedelic and occasionally unsettling imagery, adorning both album covers and gallery walls. The artist has crafted covers and posters for the likes of La Femme, Three Oh Sees, Magnetix, and several others. Elsewhere, his work has been the subject of museum exhibitions and related efforts.
The intricate line work found in Dan Hillier’s work, diverse as ever in recent drawings and collages, tells of his love of art history. The artist’s process combines ink work, digital collage and rendering, and further embellishments results in chimeric creations. Hillier was last featured on cctvta.com here.
The practice of Jesse Draxler, who recently illustrated the cover of the new Daughters album, combines painting and photographic collage. Working primarily in grayscale, both the artist’s illustrative and fine art work are packed with harrowing portraits. The artist has also crafted work for the bands Vowws and Deafheaven.
Vladislav Skobelskij, who works under the moniker Happy, creates voluminous, candy-colored scenes and animations. The delightfully garish works move between disturbing and alluring, each figure overcome by vibrant and cartoonish outgrowths. Happy often injects pop cultural and photographic elements into this fantasy world.
In a new show at Littlejohn Contemporary in New York City, Maggie Taylor's digital composite prints relay the tales in Lewis Carroll’s writings with vintage-sourced, Victorian-inspired imagery. “Through The Looking-Glass and Other Stories” kicks off in conjunction with the release the book “Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking-Glass, And What Alice Found There,’” for which she provided works. The show runs Sept. 6 through Oct. 6.
John Vochatzer
David Krovblit’s pop surrealist collages explore consumerism, sexuality, and other social themes. His "Porthole" series, in particular, juxtaposes retro exploration gear, floral arrangements, and Western iconography. His work is part of the current collage group show “Mèlange” at Arch Enemy Arts, running until Aug. 25.
The strange worlds of David Ball are forged with acrylic paint, colored pencil, and collaged materials. The artist’s pieces have been described as “otherworldly dreamscapes, composed through the harvesting of an endless trove of carefully selected images.” With this varied blend of materials, there’s both an organic (and animalistic) and mechanical quality to these creatures.
Dustin Yellin continues to evolve his stirring, enormous figures, comprised of collaged materials encased in layers of glass. His “Psychogeographies” are considered to be part of a landmark series of works in sculpture and collage. Yellin was last featured on cctvta.com here.
Philadelphia-based artist Jim Houser combines acrylics, found objects, and wood to create works that are both painting and collage. In using his “signature style of visual poetry and personal iconography,” the artist creates works that at once fresh and nostalgic. In a new show with Adam Wallacavage titled "And Yet Not Yet" at Philly's Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Houser shows were this passion has led him lately. The artist was last featured on cctvta.com here.
Puerto Rican artist Cristina Toro creates intricate acrylic paintings and collages that often explore both the interior and our connections to the outside world. Her works appear as both surreal and personal revelations, as the artist often sets out with no final image in mind. In a new show at LaCa Projects in Charlotte, N.C., these ideas take on grand forms in works like the enormous “Without Exception Everything is Reflected in this Mirror,” at 12 feet by 9 feet. The piece itself took her more than a year to complete.
The handcrafted works of Rebeka Elizegi, a collage artist based in Barcelona, Spain, come in varying sizes and scopes. And much of Elizegi’s work involves the female figure, along with the topics of “generic diversity and sexual ambiguity,” according to the artist. The artist says that she’s often fascinated by what the observer interprets from her surreal works, with much of the visuals intentionally garnering differing takes.
Alexis Anne Mackenzie’s handcut collages of found images and pages from vintage books in her latest body of work. By taking pictures like scenic backdrops and splitting them with photos of women and other figures, Mackenzie creates stirring, moody works on paper. The work can be at once empowering and seemingly treacherous for those depicted. Works like "Closer to the Sun," above, combine like objects, creates a synthesis between the beauty of flight and womanhood. The body of work is part of the show "Never Odd or Even" at Eleanor Harwood Gallery in San Francisco.
Melissa Moffat, a Toronto-based collagist, uses comic book clippings to create abstract collages. Using classic characters, the artist deconstructs the characters’ costumes and familiar forms to construct something wholly new. Yet, in a sense, the resulting work offers insight into the visual nuance of these iconic heroes and villains.
San Francisco-based visual artist Nicholas Bohac contemplates "the big picture" in his immersive, mixed media works that feature celestial figures amidst dreamlike landscapes. In his artist statement, Bohac writes that his purpose is "to question the universe and where, exactly, people fit into it… Through my work, I aim to explore the overall phenomenon of what it means to be human, past, present and future."
Mexican artist and arts educator Claudio Dicochea is best known for his contemporary reworkings of 18th century casta paintings, featuring a plethora of media idols and public figures sourced from world history and popular culture. Dicochea describes his work as "a contemporary re-examination of mestizaje, or mixed race identity" that explores "the legacy of colonial representation, hybrid identity, and contemporary media stereotypes."
Julie Speed is an American artist known for her meticulous and startling contemporary works. Her paintings, etchings and collages present bizarre imagery that is rife with absurdity, violence and anxiety, and have been described as both disturbing and beautiful. Though constantly labeled a "Neo Surrealist", Speed describes herself as a "Pararealist", offering a glimpse into a world that exists parallel to our own reality.
Andrea Myers is an artist and self-described "maker" based in Ohio. Blending forms of sculpture, painting and fiber arts, she creates collage-like sculptures, wall hangings and installations that explore the space between the two- and three-dimensional. Her works also reflect her deep interest in the process of manipulating "flat" materials, such as fabrics, felt, wood and paper, to create dynamic, multi-dimensional works of art.
Fred Tomaselli's psychedelic painting/collage hybrids have mind-altering tendencies in more ways than one. Over his career, the artist has earned a reputation for blending psychotropic substances with cut-out photos of animals and human parts to create his surreal works of art. Newer pieces shift the focus to more conventional photo collage and acrylic, yet are no less mesmerizing. Colorful and imaginative, Tomaselli's works are like portals to an alternate universe, where his "inquiry into utopia/dystopia - framed by artifice but motivated by the desire for the real - has turned out to be the primary subject".
Nora Keyes, artist and lead singer of art-rock acts like Fancy Space People, The Centimeters, and Rococo Jet, combines painting and collage for intricate, multidimensional pieces. The absorbing work can be scrutinized from feet or inches away, maintaining the viewer’s gaze at every corner. The work can feel otherworldly, yet entirely human in their contemplation and introspection.
Chapel Hill artist Antoine Williams, a.k.a. Raw, explores issues surrounding race and class through mixed-media installations, paintings, drawings, and collage. His work is semi-autobiographical, inspired by his experiences of a rural working class upbringing in Red Springs, North Carolina. "My art practice is an investigation of my cultural identity through the exploration of societal signs as they relate to institutional inequities," Williams explains in his artist statement. View more of his work on his Instagram and Tumblr.
British artist Abigail Reynolds does not take images at face value. Using the art of collage, she enhances the original picture by creating intricate assemblages out of repurposed vintage photographs, magazines, encyclopedias, atlases, and other materials she finds. "The act of folding one image into the other pushes them out into three dimensions in a bulging time ruffle," she says. Often, these feature rural England, architectural landmarks, and obscure landscapes, folded into three-dimensional geometric patterns.
Memphis based artist Josh Breeden, who goes by the moniker "St Francis Elevator Ride", works in a variety of mediums, digital and hand-drawn, including collage, print and web media. If his quirky name is any indication, his personality and humor come through in his art: chaotic assemblages that mash-up sexy vintage images with a Pop art aesthetic that are both minimal and psychedelic.