More Than Pasted Papers: Conversations Through Contemporary Collage

April 9 - May 30, 2021

5 Points Art Gallery + Studios showcases a compilation of six local, regional and national collage maestros boldly protracting the genre of collage in More Than Pasted Paper: Conversations Through Contemporary Collage.

Stretching and provoking clichéd notions and approaches to the mixing and layer of paper, More Than Pasted Paper: Conversations Through Contemporary Collage commixes contrastive 2-D and sculptural works stratified in fine art paper, wallpaper, African textiles, fragmented vinyl records, pastels, commercial labels, digitized prints, Swarovski crystals and found object embellishments torn, cut, fractured, placed, patched and lacquered into comprehensive compositions of social review.

Diversity is not only heralded through their distinctive aesthetics and material use, but also each artist’s respective narratives; furthering the visual and social dialogue between the works and the audience. The viewer will become entranced with Chrystal Gillon-Mabry’s (Milwaukee, WI) amalgamations of antebellum American iconography; Della Well’s (Milwaukee, WI) folkloric world of female empowerment and liberation; Gavin Benjamin’s (Pittsburgh, PA) coetaneous projections of outer nobility and inner majesty; Lobyn Hamilton’s (Indianapolis, IN) syncretic homage to rhythm, blues and rhymes; Muneer Bahauddeen’s (Milwaukee, WI) venerating thrones to African-American activists and martyrs; and Rosy Petri’s (Milwaukee, WI) color-imbued, patterned portraits of reverence to the ancestors and the local community hero.

More Than Pasted Paper: Conversations Through Contemporary Collage will undoubtedly challenge all immediate notions of collage and ignite discussions that expand the genre and the culture.

Missed the opening reception artist talk? View here.