Art of Collage II Online Exhibition

About the Frank Juarez Gallery Viewing Room

A note from Frank Juarez, gallery director

Since the closing of the Frank Juarez Gallery (December 2019), it has continued to maintain relationships with artists, collectors, and art enthusiasts. The future of the gallery will exist online via Instagram and website.

The gallery’s goal is to present new works by artists that we have worked with, feature artworks from exhibitions that we curate, and to organize special exhibitions. We understand that nowadays collecting art goes beyond the physical space of a gallery so this viewing room will provide us the opportunity to bring art to you. 

Our viewing room is a great resource for new and returning collectors who are looking to build their art collection.

May 2 – 30, 2020

Milwaukee, Wisconsin – The Frank Juarez Gallery is pleased to announce its second online exhibition titled, “The Art of Collage II”. This exhibition coincides with Kolaj Magazine’s World Collage Day this month. This juried exhibition features traditional, experimental, and digital collages. Featured artists are Liala Amin, Anna Banwell, Willow Bayer, Tim Day, Natalie Ergas, Jim Ford, Michele Gutierrez, Karen Gunderman, Eric Koester, Terie Leicht, Lisa Lenarz, Tanner MacArthur, Hannah Malaczynski, Roxane Mayeur, Melody Jean Moulton, Leah Norem, Stacy Lee Ollmann, Shelley Peckham, Andrew Perry, Margret Petrie, Brian Pirman, Georgina Rutherford, Rachel Hausmann Schall, Kara Slamka, and Rita Yanny.

This online exhibition runs from May 2 – May 30, 2020.  On May 9th, the Frank Juarez Gallery will be organizing a virtual collage session online.

The first art of collage was organized at the Frank Juarez Gallery in 2015 in Sheboygan. With a similar focus, The Art of Collage II features artists that create collages from found imagery to experimenting with mixed media to digital collaging. Each artist contributing to the their sense of play, investigation, and execution. 

Kolaj Magazine’s World Collage Day is March 9, 2020. World Collage Day is about artists connecting across borders against a global context of entrenchment and separation. And the day is about an art medium that excels at bringing different things together to create new forms and new ways of thinking. For information on this event, visit www.kolajmagazine.com.

Featured works are available (unless NFS) with 100% of the sales going to the artists and their studio practice. To purchase art, click on the links under their statements.

Click here to download PDF with price list (18.4 MB).

click any of the above images to go to a virtual exhibition

The order of these images correlates with the slideshow above. To purchase, contact the artist via the artist’s provided links.

Rachel Hausmann Schall utilizes language as subject matter to create text-based visual works that manifest mostly as paintings, sculpture, and installation. Phrases act as self-reflective meditations; words point out the relatable experiences that make us all human. Currently, she is working with collage to explore her immediate reactions to composition, color, and shape by arranging readily available material and imagery on a page. Her collage work uses color, pattern, shapes, and textures to create abstract compositions. Some of the collages are cut up and layered on top of one another to form letters. Others are scanned and digitally manipulated to be reproduced as inkjet prints. She sees them as studies and as ingredients for future, larger scale projects that could transform into sculpture or installation. As an artist and writer, language is full of potential and it is pivotal to her practice to experiment with materials in order to explore all possibilities of text within her work.

1) Rachel Hausmann Schall, 2020, Collage #1 from First Iteration Series, collage on paper, 5 x 7 in., $50

21) Rachel Hausmann Schall, 2020, Quarantine Collage #2 (Nail Polish), collage on paper, 6 x 11 in., $50

Contact and Connect

Web: rhausmannschall.com

IG: @@hoorachel

An internal dilemma where the instinctual flight of self-protection challenges the desire to fight and be understood.

Kara Slamka is deeply engaged with the human response of self-preservation and that which threatens the well-being of an individual, be it amplified from internalized rumination or the immediate danger of destructive, physical harm. The forces that threaten us are innumerable. They are seen and unseen. They are of our own making, they are inherited, they are stumbled upon, they are by chance.

Slamka dissects the trauma of her own self-preservation through layers of visual information whereby color and texture, and shape and form, come together to form a self-aware, though often frantic discretionary show and tell. She seeks to uncover, de-escalate and resolve.

2) Kara Slamka, 2020, Assemblage, digital collage: unframed print(s), 16 x 16 in., $80

Contact and Connect

Web: karaslamka.com

IG: @kslamka

Lisa Lenarz’s work explores imagery related to contemporary popular [visual] culture, and its implied narratives. Her curiosity in this imagery relates to the complicated nature of identity and representation within a heavily media-centric culture. Lenarz states, “Much of the imagery in my artwork is a kind of social commentary derived from interactions with photographic media sources such as magazines, film, television, newsfeeds, snapshots, the internet, and even shared cell phone photographs. My imagery is continually influenced by the visual language of popular media and its affect.” Lenarz considers research practices to be a critical part of her studio practice.

3) Lisa Lenarz, 2020, Migration, graphite drawing, pastel and digital photography with collage, 11 x 11 in., SOLD

5) Lisa Lenarz, 2020, Protection, graphite drawing and digital photography with collage, 11 x 11 in., $50

Contact and Connect

Web: moxiedheart.com

IG: @lmlenarz

Brian Pirman’s work is informed by his background in Fine Art and Graphic Design. His process involves typography, design, photography and illustration. He has a tendency to focus on formal elements which include form, pattern, texture, color and composition. His longtime interest in photography has been empowered with the addition of electronic tools to shape and manipulate imagery. A recent goal has been to generate art that looks like it could have been done by hand using electronic tools. A main goal for Brian is to create work that warrants another look and hopefully another and another. He draws his inspiration from music, fine art, film, nature and popular culture.

4) Brian Pirman, 2018, Vintage Foreign Matchbooks, digital collage, 60 x 40 in., $350

Contact and Connect

Web: brianpirman.com

IG: @brianjamespirman

Anna Banwell is an artist that works with many different art media including collage. Her artistic process consists of collecting found images from national geographic magazine pages. Through this she explores the intersection of form, texture and color, deconstructing the images by hand and reassembling them to create new concepts.

6) Anna Banwell, 2020, Balance, found image, acrylic gel medium, board, 8 x 8 in., $75

8) Anna Banwell, 2020, Sea, found image, acrylic gel medium, board, 8 x 8 in., $75

Contact and Connect

Web: link

IG: @cibosity

An artist statement only lasts for a year or two, and now the emphasis has shifted to defining unique bodies of work (not a whole career). As time goes on, Jim Ford’s thoughts on life change and evolve, and his art travels with it. The purpose changes, the focus changes, and now – the way of the world also can change overnight. In 2020, he is working exclusively in series to focus and better communicate his work. Sculpture is becoming a regular part of his practice and a natural progression. It seems to be a missing link that brings everything full circle, so he is trying to integrate that with his other work.

7) Jim Ford, 2019, Inkblot No.15 (Inkblots series), handmade collage with vintage LIFE magazines, 11 x 8.5 in., Open edition prints available from $65

29) Jim Ford, 2019, Blue No.8 (81 Colors series), collage sculpture model, printed cardstock and foam on matboard, 11 x 14 in., NFS

Contact and Connect

Web: mrjimford.com

IG: @mrjimford

Karen Gunderman follows cues from the natural world and find pleasure in observing its anomalies and curiosities. Her work takes form through diverse media, but always has roots in natural phenomena and the human attempt to understand and sometimes control our environment. With recent upheavals in our lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic she has needed to stay at home working in a makeshift studio. She has found myself focusing in on her immediate surroundings as a point of departure and solace. What has resulted is a new series of ‘Suburban’ paintings using mixed media and collage. These works are a small homage to the simpler life and expectations of those who built the modest homes in her neighborhood in the 1950’s and ‘60’s.

8) Karen Gunderman, 2020, Suburban #6, acrylic, mixed media and collage on cradled wood panel, 12 x 12 x1 in., NFS

12) Karen Gunderman, 2020, Suburban #3, acrylic, mixed media and collage on cradled wood panel, 12 x 12 x1 in., $250

Contact and Connect

Web: karengunderman.com

IG: @gundermankaren

Rita Yanny’s collage technique includes combining photo fragments, drawings, prints, cloth, beads, and repurposed materials with a variety of media, including paint, pastels, and ink. Her creative process involves exploring the aesthetic qualities of these materials, as well as the meaning and memories they hold for her. The surrealistic quality of her imaginary tableaus allows the viewer to embrace many interpretations and possibilities of meaning.

9) Rita Yanny, 2020, Vibrant, collage and acrylic on paper, 11 x 7.5 in., $500

Contact and Connect

Web: ritayannyart.com

IG: @ritayannyart

Hannah Malaczynski’s work is well suited to change and adapt quickly to life itself. All of her decisions and actions hinge on how the world moves around her. The studio functions on the unwavering ideology that art and real-life are inseparable, that each only exists through the other. What she sees every day, home life, work, family, the physical world around her — all of it stacks on top of itself and echoes through the making. Inside of these complex spaces she encounters known objects that have been assigned names and hold functions in the real-world. She is fascinated by these forms. They have become tools of passivity and she watches diligently as their quiet power moves us through daily life. As she walks through a back alley, shop at the grocery store, or in the midst of a conversation art feels most real, most alive to her.

Malacynski understands the world through the lens of metaphor; one simple thing can suggest many complex meanings. The certainty of a single perspective is never the ambition of her work. The inescapable maze of social performance and the fictitious expectation of artmaking is where she finds herself caught in the middle of and pushing up against every single day. Her studio work cracks opens her life and exposes it for what it is and how it makes me feel.

10) Hannah Jo Malaczynski, 2020, The Go, paper, twine, fireworks, photographs, 5 x 3 ft, NFS

Contact and Connect

IG: @hannahjo____

Margret Petrie’s abstract collages are created from acrylic monoprints that reflect the organic shapes and marks of her deep connection with nature – tree branches, leaves, tall prairie grass, beach glass, and river rocks. She picks a color palette, digs through hundreds of her monoprint papers, chooses a few dozen, and starts to cut and paste. She creates intuitively, trusting that the piece will evolve from the process of doing, and not planning.

Petrie’s current series of large collage grids, composed of up to 220 3” small collages, gives her a space to make friends with the anxieties, hopes and dreams, failures and possibilities bouncing around in her head.

11) Margret Petrie, 2020 , On the Precipice of a Breakthrough, acrylic monoprint collage on paper, 60 x 34 in., $900

Contact and Connect

Web: margretpetrie.com

IG: @margret.petrie

Shelley Peckham explores the wilderness of our private lives through assemblage of vintage and modern photographs culled from books and magazines, creating surreal scenes that recall the uncanny, mercurial nature of dreams. These dreamscapes challenge viewers to consider the contrast of their carefully curated public selves to the chaos of their inner storms. Her work is created with a choreographer’s eye, telling stories and interpreting emotion from the suggestion of physical movement.

Her most recent collages explore the intersection of physical beauty and function, as well as the mental struggles that erupt from our perspectives on these ideas. Elegance and brutality exist simultaneously in surreal scenes expressing the torment of body dysmorphia, the confusion of engrained expectations, and the ongoing journey of self-acceptance.

The use of black and white evokes the cold isolation of mental anguish, while blurring the visual lines between human form and machine. The recurring suggestion of serpentine and circular movement is a reminder of the constantly changing nature of both body and mind, while underscoring how the universal struggle to make peace with these forces connects us to each other. Through these pieces, viewers are asked to consider how their appreciation of function informs their perception of beauty

13) Shelley Peckham, 2019, Echo Chamber, paper collage, 6.5 x 5.5 in., $250

26) Shelley Peckham, 2019, The Stairs, paper collage, 7 x 7.5 in., $300

Contact and Connect

Web: shelleypeckham.com

IG: @threetimesamaybe

By investigating different perspectives and using bold colors, Willow Bayer recreates everyday places. Her process begins by either photographing or sourcing photos of spaces, from which she creates collages. The collages are finished pieces and are references for her acrylic paintings. Her references determine what textures and applications to use before painting each layer. After painting she adds details with ink giving them an illustrative style. Through recreating these spaces, Bayer reinvents the world using her imagination, but still including parts of reality.

14) Willow Bayer, 2019, Willa’s Big Mess, paper and ink, 12 x 10 in. (framed and double matted), $300

Contact and Connect

Web: willowbayer.com

IG: @willowbayer

What is the essence of a person, place, or experience- what is its texture? We are an amalgamation of our own realities, memories, and feelings. Our native fibers are simply fragments of where we have been, experiences we have had, things we have seen. Once our experiences become memory, our minds jump to brief snapshots, almost blinks- of texture, colors, and feelings- which is reflected in Natalie Ergas’s work. She strives to explore the intimate, personal nature of each subject through related imagery and texture- which evolves through an organic process. She creates her collages entirely by hand, cutting from her own imagery and magazine imagery. Creating this work using analogue methods is integral to feeling connected to the subject. Working from words that embody her subject, evolves imagery. Working from imagery, evolves texture and symbolism. She follows her intuition to visually describe her subjects, and once the piece is complete, it comes to reflect the subject’s essence or a facet of such, in a subconscious and visceral manner.

15) Natalie Ergas, 2019, Erjaz, analogue collage, 11 x14 in. Reproductions & prints available.

30) Natalie Ergas, 2020, Bonjour Demain: covid reality, analogue collage, 6 x6 in., NFS

Contact and Connect

Web: nativeessenceart.com

IG: @native.essence.art

Georgina Rutherford’s artwork is currently exploring concepts of invasiveness, impermanence, and the unseen in relation to the Great Lakes. The transparent surface of the lake is a deceptive indicator to the health of the ecosystems below the surface. With climate change, invasive species and polluted waters, the lakes are quickly devolving into a water desert at the heart of the Midwest. In addition to her artist practice, she is researching the history of the lakes, taking field notes while on visits to Lake Michigan and collecting various specimens the lake has turned over to the beaches.

Back in her studio, the lake is not so distant, but is wholly omnipresent. Through printmaking, book arts, and collage, she is constantly repurposing prints, mixing media and experimenting. Utilizing subject matter such as zebra and quagga mussels, alewives, sea lamprey, round goby, the spiny water flea and other invasive creatures, she aims to replicate their detrimental multiplicity. The work is in a constant state of flux as she manipulates prints, employs repetition, and explores the subtle changes that emerge through habitual art making. The result captures the current condition of the Great Lakes due to our anthropocentric perspective on the natural world. As an artist, she is addressing subject matters our society tends to neglect or ignore, including adverse environmental impacts right here in Milwaukee. She aims to provoke thought and engage her audiences with history, science, and environmental ethics.

16) Georgina Rutherford, 2020, Squirm, gouache, watercolor, printmaking (screen-printing, block printing,lithography) Citra Solv transfer, pen and ink, 10 x 12.5 in., $300

Contact and Connect

Web: georutherford.weebly.com

IG: @someprintlife

Andrew Perry is a visual fine artist at heart. His passion for painting and drawing goes back a great number of years. Perry has always savored the anticipation he feels while designing a unique image and slowly watching it materialize on the canvas. Perry thinks of art as a form of the “old magic”. Andrew Perry’s personal philosophy is that the best way to depict what you want for an image is to let go of your practical mind and try several different approaches. The image in your mind’s eye is magically transformed and adapted to fit the constraints of your skill level.

What really defines much of Perry’s body of work is this shared vibe of uneasiness and surreal discomfort, even when the visual content is supposedly “sexy” or “aesthetically pleasing”. Perry’s intentional addition of tension or suspense to his more personal visual narratives, allows the paintings strike a nerve within some folks or to address the concerns of others. Much like a film, Perry’s work uses visual metaphors to talk about people’s insecurities and society’s flaws. Perry’s work consists of a variety of different compositional styles and depending on his mood, this imagery is manifested through the mediums of either painting, mono printing, or amateur photography.

17) Andrew Perry, The Valley, 2013, photoshop Photo Collage, 16 x 12 in., SOLD

Contact and Connect

IG: @andy.m.paintworks_brand

Milwaukee artist, Stacy Lee Ollmann finds that her new reality of social distancing has left her with an abundance of time, but also an underlying anxiety that challenges her motivation to create. Ollmann says that the art of collage has been the answer to her ennui. The process of turning page after page, looking for the right images, then arranging, adhering, and embellishing each collage induces a meditative quality to her studio time.

Like many others, she finds herself working within a new paradigm. Using discarded books, old magazines and bits of her own artwork, Ollmann creates impelling images of the paradox she finds herself living in. Mundane activities such as grocery shopping have become risky, our comfortable homes now feel confining, previously welcomed social gestures such as hugs and handshakes are met with aversion.

Ollmann’s work combines COVID-19 references with a quality of mindfulness. This juxtaposition reflects a precise representation of her internal state, as she tries to wrap her mind around the news of the day.

20) Stacy Lee Ollmann, 2020, Self-Distancing Day #10, various types of cut paper and acrylic paint on heavy mixed media paper, 9 x 12 in., $125

Contact and Connect

Web: stacyleeollmann.com

IG: @stacyleeollmann_artist

Dark yet with a sense of humor, Melody Jean Moulton’s work conveys ideas and feelings in a way that can invoke a sense of confusion. Her audience might feel uncomfortable but at the same time is drawn in, needing to make sense of the chaos they see before them. After examining one of her pieces, it still might not be clear to the audience what exactly is going on. And that’s okay. Go with your gut. All of Mouton’s pieces are intuition based, whether she has a vision of what the final piece is going to look like or not, she always trusts her “sixth sense” to guide her to the finished product. Moulton is a person who finds deep satisfaction in the idea of invoking the imaginations of others. When asked what makes a piece successful, she answers, “If I can spark a strong emotion from my audience, I have made a successful piece, laugh, cry, burn it in your fire pit. There aren’t any wrong answers in the 3-ring circus that is art.”

22) Melody Jean Moulton, 2019, Righteous Afterbirth, hand-cut analog collage with acrylic uv coat, 6.25 x 10 in., $275 (unframed)

Contact and Connect

Web: ghostsgritmomentum.com

IG: @ghostsgritmomentum

Tim Day is a scientist and an artist. His science background tells him to experiment. He cannot understand how a creative person, an artist, is bound to a single style, form, or type of art.

He strives to infuse his life and travels into his artwork. Images may include anywhere from Nebraska’s dirt roads to Kyoto’s Shinto shrines.

Day’s subjects can also be culled from current or past media/photos. He tries to filter the influences from past art studies into his own. Having an open mind to the use of new materials and methods in order to produce a new vision is important. Remaining technically sound and producing in a professional manner is a must. Compound the above with his passion for art and the final goal is to make creative works that will be worth looking at now and in the future.

23) Tim Day, 2020, Color Tempestas, painted and cut collage with encaustic on wood panel, 16 X 20 in., NFS

Contact and Connect

Web: JTDprojects.com

IG: @JTD_projects

Terie Leicht is her own muse. Her art is inspired by ideas that she cares about and is made from materials often old and discarded. Caring and creativity are at the core of who she is as an artist and a person. Her journeys often take her to estate sales, junk stores, used book shops, and other places filled with things forgotten by others. The road to where she’s been has been filled with a few roundabouts and washouts – it has never been boring. While making her art she is often reminded of the words of the sculptor Brancusi- “ to see far is one thing; going there is another”. Her ultimate goal will always be to take you there.

24) Terie Leicht, 2020, Three Faces of Eve(lyn), mixed media and collage, 12 X 16 in., $250.00 unframed, $350.00 framed

Contact and Connect

Web: TKLworkshop.com

IG: @terieleicht

Roxane Mayeur’s work focuses on the quiet spaces created by the passage of time. Images elevate the common into sacred, revealing the aesthetics of the broken and imperfect, discarded and devalued, while celebrating the process of reclamation and recovery.

The images are created with encaustic wax as a medium. Intensely process driven, multiple layers of beeswax, tree resin and pigments are fused using a torch or other heat source, producing a translucence and ethereal quality unlike any other medium. She often embeds materials into the wax, such as rust, metal, stone, graphite, and original digital photography. Other times, she will apply cold wax medium, bridging encaustic and traditional oil painting.

25) Roxane Mayeur, 2019, Tuesday’s Child, cold wax, oil and collage on cradled wood panel, 12 x 24 x 1.5 in., $350

Contact and Connect

Web: roxartmke.com

IG: @roxanemayeur

Eric Koester’s work combines pop imagery that explores various aspects of commerce and exchange, the role of consumption in the construction of our identities and the politics of power. The conflict of humankind, the impact of consumption on the environment and food chain are prominent subjects. He creates landscapes with collages, which become a distorted memory. Though at times the collage works on its own as a finished product, they are an exploration of ideas for his paintings.

31) Eric Koester, 2020, Just Like You, collage, 9 x 12 in., $50

Contact and Connect

Web: ericthomaskoester.com

IG: @eric_t_koester

Liala Amin’s art is meditation. She explores her identity through art, processing her life experiences and searching for a spirituality in which to call hers, separate from influence and using her own intuition. In her work she seeks personal truth and acceptance, self-love and healing. While gaining independence and claiming her own voice, she maneuvers through truth and reconciliation to new knowledge and understanding. Sometimes it’s terrifying but it is always rewarding.

Amin considers her work a visual journal to manifest introspection and reflections on the process of growth. Her current work explores breaking from concealment to express revelations of becoming who she is meant to be. She is finding the medicine to acknowledge past traumas and the pathway to spiritual strength. Each artwork is built piece by piece according to how it opens her heart and mind, creating the physical manifestation of her journey.

32) Liala Amin, Body, mixed media collage and embroidery on paper, 8.5 x 10 in., $300

Contact and Connect

Web: lialathecreative.com

IG: @lialathecreative