About the Exhibition

Sydney Collage Society presents a group show, featuring artists working in and exploring the possibilities of contemporary collage. Each artist has developed a unique approach to their art making, whether it be in form, concept and/or process which move beyond cut and paste collage. Collage doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it is part of a cultural flow that connects all expressive mediums, be it painting or sculpture. Early on, collage found form in Cubism, Dada and Surrealism; challenging the established notions of art through playful re-interpretation and new formulations of what art is and what it can mean. Contemporary collage encompasses a diverse range of artists currently practising around the world. These artists create works from their particular vantage point; their experience, dreams, fears and cultural commentary, all crystallise to form their work. They each gather their materials in different ways; some hoard books and work in rooms of wild chaos, while others dissect like a surgeon the particular parts of a new creation, their studios as precise as their technique. In a world increasingly saturated by images - now a constant stream on personal screens – collage artists harvest from the mass and reconfigure to make clear, to question and too upset expectations. At times it feels like a collage is only momentarily frozen and any minute the pieces will swirl across the page to form something new. It is in this pause, this decisive honouring of a relationship between parts, that this art form operates.