A multifaceted art form, collage is a way of seizing and cutting materials from a previous context and re-purposing them in order to create new stimuli. By its nature, collage has come to encapsulate many different artistic movements. Perhaps most famously, Cubist painters Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso first coined the phrase ‘collage’ when attempting to categorise their artistic innovations.

The Cubist experiments and the Dada movement of the early 20th century saw artists such as Hanna Hoch and Man Ray use the form of collage as a reaction against tradition and artistic formalities. Daring and bold, the fragmentary unification of a collage functions on many levels: to perform, to shock, to confuse, to solve, and, most importantly, to re-appropriate the old into something new.

In some cases, collage can be a fusion of the uncanny and the inexplicable, often creating surreal visual narratives that challenge the eye. They can also be a means of bringing together images that confide in one another, discovering truth in this new collaborative purpose.

In the near centenary of the term ‘collage,’ the exhibition aimed to celebrate the concepts and practices behind this ever-growing art form. Showing a diverse range of media, from traditional paper collage, to the exploration of the ideas of collage in graphic design, textile, and paint, this collection celebrated 21st century collage in its diversity and influence on contemporary artists.

A selection of participating artists include:

Godze Beyza Akguil, Theo Curtis, Giles Leaman, Stefan Phillips, Rosie James, Jerry Scott, Anna Peaker, Gail Fox, Laura Corlett, Jessica Wheeler, Lucy-Marie, Hannah Caulfield, and Judy Burdett.