Downtime Interview w/ Edgard Barbosa
“I think that images and photos, specifically commercial ones, are as environmental as nature and light in our time. Collage gives me direct access to that reality and the chance to reshape it.”
— Edgard Barbosa, 2025
1) LOCATION?
New York, NY 🇺🇸
2) YEARS COLLAGING?
I started back in 2012-13 but took a long hiatus. I’ve picked up the medium again for about 7 years.
3) WHY IS COLLAGE AN APPEALING MEDIUM?
I think that images and photos, specifically commercial ones, are as environmental as nature and light in our time. Collage gives me direct access to that reality and the chance to reshape it.
4) WHO ARE THE BIGGEST INFLUENCES ON YOUR WORK?
I’ve been very influenced by the International Style in architecture and its many mutations. I think the pursuit of a common geometric aesthetic language is commendable and still ripe for exploration. I’ve also been inspired by the Neo-Concrete movement, especially their turn away from rationalism toward subjectivity and sensory experience at the height of mid-century Minimalism. Right now, one of my priorities is exploring how collage can evoke sensory experience in the digital and post-digital era.
5) ANALOG VS DIGITAL, WHAT ARE THE PROS & CONS OF EACH?
Analog is sensual and digital is precise. Analog collage gives us the opportunity to have an immediate relationship with the images and objects we are creating, while digital collage gives us limitless editing possibilities.
I’ve never felt I needed to choose between them. The more interesting approach to me is to explore what we can get from blending both approaches. What interests me is what happens when they intersect, when analog tactility meets digital precision. That’s where questions of objecthood and perception start to mirror the complexity of our time.
6) WHAT ARE THREE TIPS FOR SOMEONE STARTING OUT IN COLLAGE?
If you are starting out, use what is immediately around you as your material. You will be amazed with what you can achieve with limitations
Taste is more important than technique
Don’t be an island
7) HOW DO YOU SPEND YOUR DOWNTIME?
I’m a dad of 6-year old twins so I don’t have a whole lot of downtime, but when I do, I like to skateboard, go thrifting. I’ve recently started collecting postcards of modernist buildings and interiors (1940s–70s). I’m up to about 60 cards.
8) WHERE DO YOU SEE YOUR ART PRACTICE HEADING?
I come from a street art background, so I’m interested in experimenting with wheat-pasted murals using collage materials. I also see video and animation becoming part of my future practice.
Organs Within_001, 2023, Paper collage digitally enlarged, laser print collage on canvas, 36 x 36 in.
9) WHICH THREE ARTISTS SHOULD WE CHECK OUT?
Shoutout to all working New York artists!
I’m currently enjoying the incredibly bright and semiotically rich paintings of Pranav Sood (@pranavsoodstudios), the meditative and personal deconstruction collage artist Andrea Burgay (@andreaburgay) and the beautifully composed abstraction of Alison Kruvant (@alison_kruvant).
10) WHAT MUSIC ARE YOU LOVING RIGHT NOW?
I’ve been between a lot of wildly different music moods lately. The last albums in rotation have been Beat by Bowery Electric, Die Lit by Playboi Carti, BLACKsummers’night by Maxwell, Clear Horizon by Clear Horizon, and Te Amo Lá Fora by DUDA BEAT
11) UP AND COMING SHOWS OR PROJECTS WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT?
It’s been an exciting stretch. I just wrapped a three-month group show at Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue, and last week opened a new two-month show, KOR-MATIC, at the Red Wall Gallery at Resorts World NYC. In November, I’ll be part of the Confetti exhibition at Atelier Sea Grandon in Warsaw, IN.
See more 👀
Website: edgardbarbosa.com
Instagram: @edgard__barbosa
TikTok: @edgard__barbosa
Spotify: HoneyYork Studio
