Collage Art/ Special Edition

A celebration of fragments, and the worlds they create.

Collage is the art of fragments, yet it speaks in a universal language. From its early roots in Cubism and Dada to its current digital incarnations, collage has continually pushed against boundaries of image, meaning, and material. It is at once playful and profound, political and poetic, deeply personal yet endlessly open to reinterpretation.

In this special 76th edition, we bring together a constellation of international artists whose practices demonstrate the enduring power of collage across mediums. Their works—whether composed of torn paper, found photographs, painted gestures, digital overlays, or layered textiles—invite us to see the world anew. They remind us that the act of cutting and reassembling is more than a technique: it is a philosophy of perception, a way of negotiating the chaos of contemporary life by creating meaning from its fragments.

The artists featured here span continents and cultures, and with them, a rich diversity of approaches emerges. Some treat collage as an extension of painting, embedding scraps of paper, print, or textile into surfaces that oscillate between figuration and abstraction. Others lean toward photography, exploring the uncanny dialogues that occur when disparate images are forced into proximity. Still others embrace mixed media, combining drawing, sculpture, or even sound with collage to test the boundaries of what the form can be.

Each biography, artist statement, and interview in this edition offers a glimpse into how these makers navigate both the personal and the political through collage. For some, it becomes a way to archive memory, reconfiguring the past to make sense of the present. For others, it is a sharp tool of critique—addressing consumer culture, environmental crises, or social inequities. And for many, it is simply a process of discovery: a way to embrace chance, accident, and the surprising beauty of juxtaposition.

At its heart, collage is a paradox. It breaks apart in order to build. It disrupts but also connects. It insists that identity, history, and even beauty are not singular but layered, shifting, and plural. In this sense, collage reflects the very condition of our time: a world saturated with images, stories, and voices, all colliding in unpredictable ways.

Volume 76 does not seek to define collage in fixed terms. Instead, it celebrates the multiplicity of approaches, the risk-taking, and the restless creativity that collage inspires. Across the pages of this issue, you will find works that are intimate and expansive, humorous and haunting, precise and chaotic—all bound together by the shared impulse to transform fragments into vision.

As you move through this edition, we invite you to pause at the torn edges, the visible seams, the unexpected alignments. Consider the questions these artists pose through their work: What stories emerge when images are layered? What truths are revealed when the familiar is disrupted? And how might the act of assembling fragments remind us of our own capacity to rebuild, reimagine, and reconnect?

Collage, after all, is not only an artform but also a metaphor. It is about piecing together the scattered, finding coherence in multiplicity, and allowing contradictions to coexist. In the hands of the artists featured here, it becomes a testament to resilience, imagination, and the endless possibilities of seeing.