By Katarina Hybenova
“Bushwick collage is not only popular, but increasingly amazing!” This was my conclusion recently made after numerous art-exploring adventures in Bushwick. Collage being a combination of elements from different sources reflects the time we live in so accurately. Magazines, postcards, fliers… Stimuli coming at us from every direction, combined with artists’ own imaginary world reflect everyday subconscious battle with overload of impulses. While some artists work with physical elements and cut outs, others work with images compiled exclusively from the Internet, and create collages in Photoshop. I believe that this speaks loud about the spirit of the time, and the vanishing importance of print and physical objects in favor of the Internet…
Here is a selection of 10 extraordinary artists from the Bushwick area who work in collage listed in alphabetical order.
Nate Anspaugh lives and works in Ridgewood. A large part of his body of works is formed by poster collage. He scrapes of posters from the walls as if he was taking parts of the city home with him. Afterwards, he layers them frantically creating abstract objects, a collage of city impressions…
#2 Paul D’Agostino
One of the number of the activities of Paul D’Agostino, a Bushwick’s renaissance man, is collage making. Almost forgotten memories, narratives and concepts are common to Paul’s works. Paul uses old postcards, cut outs from the magazines, advertising fliers, newspaper articles, or headlines…
Collage and assamblage is the medium of Andrew Hurst. This sophisticated Bushwick artists creates imaginary worlds frequently balancing on the edge of the dark side.
#4 Kenna Kindig
Kenna Kinding is a young artist who in addition to typical cut outs and drawing uses also artificial hair. Her imaginary worlds are altered consciously with borrowed elements from elsewhere, such as a typical manga eye on a character in her piece.
Ken Kocses, a Ridgewood-based artist combines drawings and collage. Characters from the 1990s TV shows, basketball stars, kid commercials – Ken’s pieces are full of pop culture references. He searches the Internet for images from the decade to print them and glue them onto his trippy drawings.
#6 Ellen Letcher
Ellen Letcher’s minimalism and brutality combined with tenderness are striking. She combines cut outs from (fashion) magazines with paint, result of which are intensely unsettling pieces.
JP Marin’s collage art is a trippy journey of the Internet. As a reflection of the stream of JP’s consciousness feel also his collages. He uses quirky, odd elements; his collage art is full of pop cultural references and insider jokes.
A journey through Kevin Regan’s body of work is adventurous, and if you set for it, you will most likely feel like a kid discovering new fantasy worlds. I personally enjoy his sense of humor and self-irony, which are leaking through his narratives.
Austin Thomas lives and works in Manhattan, but her numerous Bushwick activities, from exhibiting, curating, mentoring to supporting the community, qualify her for a honorary title of a Bushwick artist (at the very least). Her gentle collage pieces are an exquisite gate to her dreamy worlds. She frequently uses subtle shapes, pale colors, using mostly paper, her collage pieces belong to the most important of the list.
Vahge is a Bushwick-based self-taught collage artist, which is pretty much absolutely amazing. She works in small scale with a surgeon-like precision. Her objects are usually women placed between romantic and unsettling reality.