Captivated By Collage — New York Artists Equity Association

By Michael Gormley

Equity is currently hosting a show of works by three artists that privilege collage as their overriding tool of expression. The results are indeed compelling--both because the artists are astute practitioners of the media and because the media speaks directly to the times we live in.

Its founding impulse, advanced by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso to depict deconstructed subject matter by piecing together pictorial compositions from disparate components, echoes the interpersonal, political and economic fault lines radiating out past our lives, our homes and our communities and circling a whole world both divided and joined by these selfsame fissures.

Linnea Paskow, “Lodge”, collage , 54” x 43”, 2020 — **Linnea Paskow,** “Lodge”, collage , 54” x 43”, 2020

Paskow’s work takes on this epic intent with noteworthy scale and, as it eschews the formalist taboo against narrative and representation, assumes a double life by also posing as history painting. “Ballast” for example, appears to show an exploding cylindrical form(be that a decapitated egg or perhaps a downed blimp) spilling forth the detritus of our collective aspirations and memories. “Vamp” similarly bursts forth with explosive and near hysterical color whilst depicting an upside-down figure intimating the suspended animation, surrender and metamorphosis of the Tarot’s Hanged Man. Pointing to a pandemic life on hold, “Vamp” may also be viewed as the divine fool---a figure symbolizing blind leaps into the void without the assurance of safety nets. “Lodge” with its darkly hued swirling masses abutting constricting bands of horizontal and vertical stripes continues the narrative of time and space and recalls the sudden appearance of a chasm or a portal to be traversed. In seeming contrast to the sublime psychological space depicted in “Lodge”, “Quarantine House phase 2” offers an updated Barbie Dream House ---a safe respite to which one repairs.

Melissa Staiger, “Shark Fin”, collage on paper, 15” x 11”, 2018 - 2019 — **Melissa Staiger**, “Shark Fin”, collage on paper, 15” x 11”, 2018 - 2019

As does Paskow, Melissa Staiger digs deep with automatic assemblages comprised of paintings and colored papers that reveal an untainted, primitive and naïve engagement with the natural world. Staiger’s collages dance between abstract and representational effects creating scenes more evocative of dreams or memories. One imagines “Grass View” to be a summer night of careless play in an open field aglow with an August moon. “Sway” is a make-believe dive into a tropical fish aquarium and “Shark Fin” a fauvist’s nightmare warning of the shock of too much pink in a carefully composed parlor.

Marianne Gagnier, “Repair Series, #7 (red stripe)”, acrylic on paper, 30” x 34”, 2019 — **Marianne Gagnier,** “Repair Series, #7 (red stripe)”, acrylic on paper, 30” x 34”, 2019

Marianne Gagnier is an alchemist—her collages hard won distillations of color, form and texture deployed in a Hofmann-esque triumph to compositional tension. Aptly titled “Repair Series”, Gagnier’s collage surfaces are battle fields; layers upon layers, torn and stacked, pasted and re-pasted and painted all over again. Their very making, the great effort to pull together opposing parts (however fractured) into a compelling and greater whole, embodies what collage does best and why it calls to us so loudly on this day.