Sharon Walters
London-based artist Sharon Walters crafts intricate silhouette-like paper cut artworks that come together to form breathtaking composite images. Sharon masterfully cuts, glues, and sculpts dimensional portraits that unapologetically celebrate and elevate Black women beyond the monolith, emphasising the importance of being seen and heard. Sharon’s amalgamation of material includes photographs of female friends, magazine clippings, as well as found and donated images. This is testament to the resilience, beauty, and strength found within this multifaceted community.
You can find more of Sharon’s work on her website and Instagram.
Betsy Smith
Betsy Smith is an ex-policewoman and collage artist, particularly using the medium as a way to tell stories. The piece featured, ‘The World Through Their Eyes’, recounts the story of Betsy witnessing the death of a young girl: ‘This Collage illustrates a mental portrait of the PTSD I experienced and a reflection of my memory of the girl and was a way to reflect and embrace my memories of that awful day. The Collage itself represents my reflection of the girl and her innocent youth. It shows how her face is in every child I saw and how scarred I was from that experience.’
You can find more of Betsy’s work on their Instagram.
Cold War Steve
If you’re an active Twitter user, you may have encountered the satirical artwork of Cold War Steve, the pseudonym of Birmingham-based collage artist Christopher Spencer. Christopher began creating collages from his phone and ipad in 2016 as an outlet to cope with his mental health issues. His surreal, hilarious and provocative collages are now internationally recognised, offering a refreshing perspective on the serious political and economic issues of our time. His artistry brings a much-needed lightness to the challenges we face today.
You can find more of Cold War Steve’s work on his website and Instagram.
Tatiana Briceño Lagos
Tatiana Briceño Lagos is a Chilean analog collage artist. With the strength and versatility of women being one of their main inspirations, Tatiana uses a a maximum of two to five magazine cutouts, such as in this piece ‘Synchronicity’:
‘Little by little, I was putting pages of magazines together, trying combinations only by intuition. Finding a harmonious concept in a group of images, which had no links until my intervention, is a unique and magical moment. It all comes together: the form, the message and its previously unknown beauty.’
You can find more of Tatiana’s work on their website and Instagram.
A Soft Wrongness (Kelsey Landsgaard)
Kelsey is the Florida-based poet and artist behind the pseudonym A Soft Wrongness, creating vibrant collages imbued with colour and childhood nostalgia. Her collages are delightfully naïve and playful, acting as a gentle invitation that beckons viewers to delve deeper. Yet, within the charming visuals lies a profound depth. Kelsey skilfully intertwines thought-provoking lines of text, evoking a sense of maturity and striking chords of relatability among adults. Kelsey fearlessly reimagines fairytales, juxtaposing them with noughties trends to create windows into whimsical realms, and through these collisions, she crafts a sophisticated and harmonious collage style that is uniquely her own.
You can find more of Kelsey’s work on her website and Instagram.
Sam Dodson
Sam Dodson is a professional artist and former musician in Loop Guru and the Transmitters, with his collage works having roots in Dada and Surrealism. Using everything from old comics, dinosaur books, vintage paper, old picture frames, anatomical books, old art books, Sam creates magic within his work. Taking ‘Dada Socks’ for example, you become lost within the cut outs which seamlessly blend together in to something quite psychedelic. As Sam says himself: ‘My very act of cutting is a form of rebellion’.
You can find more of Sam’s work on his website and Instagram.
Charlie Fitz
UK-based sick and disabled artist Charlie uses digital collage to explore her deeply personal journey of understanding and reclaiming experiences of illness and trauma. Charlie poses poignant questions that resonate with countless individuals navigating similar paths: “Will I feel a bit better tomorrow?” Her surreal self-portraits, oscillating between moments of isolation and empowerment, serve as a visual exploration of the complex emotions and realities she encounters. This is Charlie’s universal language of disability activism.
You can find more of Charlie’s work on their website and Instagram.
Brittany DiMauro
Brittany DiMauro is a New York City based collage artist who uses discarded materials to create intricate visual works that delve into complex issues regarding the malleability of the mind and its exploitation through the advent of celebrity, consciously using iconography sourced from both contemporary and ancient works of art to further evidence and support this theory. Typically working in paper and glue, such as by using magazine cut outs, her work stems from a need to be resourceful and liberate herself. This piece, ‘Pam After The Storm’, is an accurate representation of how she allows the cut outs to frame the icon.
You can find more of Brittany’s work on her website and Instagram.
Severe Paper (Yannick Lowery)
Philadelphia-based artist Yannick Lowery uses paper materials from different time periods to form intuitively assembled worlds. Drawing inspiration from the dynamism of his hometown, New York, as well as his current residence in Philadelphia, Yannick skillfully weaves together a tapestry of photography, found paper, and archived paper to construct captivating paper parables. Within these intricate narratives, the artist shines a spotlight on the Black experience in America and beyond, deftly intertwining the parallels of time to illuminate resilience, heritage, and triumph.
You can find more of Yannick’s work on his website and Instagram.
Johannes Rudloff
Johannes Rudloff is a german artist who investigates constructions of realities as well as the resulting aesthetic forms of expression. Although not sitting in the traditional realm of collage which you expect to see, Johannes’ work is based more in sculpture. The work featured here, titled ‘Enjoy’, is a colourful assemblage made of found objects and remains of other works.
You can find more of Johannes’ work on their website.
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Authors
Bethan Jayne Goddard
