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10 Collage Artists Which You Could Research

  • laurenjadesmith
  • Oct 26, 2022
  • 8 min read

Updated: Oct 30, 2022

As you may already know, one of the most important factors within developing a personal project or project brief is finding inspiration, whether that is through existing brands or current artists and designers. This is because we can get inspired through specific aspects of their work and use it to influence our choices in our own work. This blog is going to be focusing on artists who experiment primarily with collage art, which is described as "the technique and the resulting work of art in which pieces of paper, photographs, fabric and other ephemera are arranged and stuck down onto a supporting surface." Collage art is a great medium to experiment with because it is a great way to experiment with your own creativity and create something unique. The possibilities are endless; you can experiment with so many materials, ranging from newspaper, primary images to more thicker fabrics like wool.


I will give you a brief overview of who these artists are, as well as a quick summary of the visual aspects within their work. If you would like more help into HOW to analyse an artist, look back at a previous blog post digesting other artists work, such as Liza Rusalskaya.


1) Troy Browne

Troy Browne is a freelancer, mograph and animator. Browne's work is often described as "grotesque", due to facial modification such as removing eyes or increasing the size of certain features like the mouth.

"The subjects of Brown’s works almost always belong to the black community; they are assemblages of squared-off cutouts that contrast against flat, brightly colored backgrounds."

Browne's work is most definitely my favourite designer within the collage medium. The concept of using his own primary imagery allows him to able to experiment with more possibilities within his work. Browne enhances certain features of his work, which is most effective on the second design down. Browne has significantly increased the size of the man's hand, making them significantly larger than the man's face, adding a comical value to the design. The colour palette is also extremely inspiring, as Browne typically uses bright, vibrant colours which are complimentary, meaning they are opposite each other on the colour wheel (red & green, orange & blue).


Website: https://www.troybrowne.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/troybrowne/



2) Kristina Nosal

Kristina Nosal is an Artist & Art Educator from New York, working with teachers who want to incorporate art journalism into their current art curriculum. In her spare time, when she is not teaching, Nosal is a mixed media artist, which is the work we are going to be primarily looking at.

"She loves to collect old papers, vintage books and various fodder for use in her own art. She also loves collecting new art supplies to try out, swatching watercolors, learning new mixed media techniques and creating custom papers to use in her artwork."

Nosal places her work directly central of the page, allowing the design to appear more professional and structured. The second image is the most inspiring out of her designs for me. Nosal has chosen to use a more unique material, instead of paper, with a piece of ribbon wrapping around the central design, allowing the design to appear more experimental and unqiue. In the third design down, with the bright yellow background, she has cut shapes into the design, like these oval tips coming out the bottom of the text, allowing the design to appear more unique and less boring. Nosal's work includes a variety of different trimming methods, ranging of natural ripping to precise cutting, allowing the design to appear more engaging, which is inspiring.




3) Kellette Elliott

Kellette Elliott is a collage artist based in Oregon, USA. Elliott is a successful, established designer; "her work has appeared in well-known magazines like Playboy and New Statesman, books about collage, album covers, and one of Print Magazines Top 5 collage artists to follow on Instagram."

"She creates analog collages that hope to bring you some nostalgia and joy using ephemera and vintage imagery. "

Elliott uses lots of shape within her work to allow her work to appear more structrured, thought-out and in turn, professional, which is clear to see within the top image. The background image of a mountainous skyline has been placed within a perfect circle, with a man sitting directly on the edge of the circle. The concept of directly incorporating the background design with the foreground design helps the design to appear more structured. The concept of experimenting with very little layers and materials, whilst maintaining a professional, thought-out design is very difficult to achieve within the collage medium - inspiring!




4) Ben DiNino

Ben DiNino is an artist from York, Pennsylvania, with his main methods of working being through excavating and obscuring. DiNino uses a variety of paper based materials, slide film, photographic prints and negatives within his collages, in turn creating both abstract and narrative work.

"In all my work I hope to shed light on the overlooked or discarded; those items or places that are slightly out of focus in the background. By highlighting their existence or reconfiguring them into something new I hope to breathe new life into these neglected images."

DiNino carefully cuts out the different shapes within his collages, allowing his work to hold a professional, clean atmosphere. DiNino overlays the images over each other, allowing his work to feel more confined. The technique that DiNino often does with not sticking the images down to the piece of paper behind works for a couple of reasons. This technique adds shadow behind the shapes, adding dimension and detail to the design. This technique also allows DiNino the capability to easily change shapes around, if he wants to make a quick adjustment or decides to experiment further.


Website: https://www.bendinino.com



5) Laura Weiler

Laura Weiler, also known as Cut & Placed, is a visual designer and analog collagist, living in Oregon, USA. Weiler experiments with a range of different materials within her collages, including antique newsprint, cardstock, vintage magazines, books, and digitally sourced photography.

"Laura combines her love of paper ephemera and narrative design to create dynamic and unexpected images. Elements cut from the past and present are recontextualized into vibrant environments exploring human relationships, psychology, and dimension."

Weiler typically experiments with portraits within her work and tends to heavily adjust the face through overlaying it with different styles of material, allowing the design to hold a mysterious, emotional feeling to it. I get the impression that the people in the image are feeling a sense of loneliness and emptiness. Similar experiences to dissociation (feeling disconnected from yourself and the world around you). Weiler's shape trimming methods range of clean, precise cutting to natural, unpredictable rips.


Website: https://www.cutandplaced.com



6) Jens Wortmann

Wortmann is a designer from Aachen, Germany, who primarily experiments on paper art, particularly paper collages. Wortmann's favourite materials to experiment within his collage work is old magazines from the 1950's/1960's. Paper is the only material which Wortmann experiments with. Wortmann stated in an interview, "mixed collages consisting of cords, scraps of cloth, glitter, and glittering sand are pretty awful."

"When I start to work I almost never have any idea of what I want to express with the respective work, i.e. the creative process for each work is the same: I get packs of old newspapers and start browsing through them to find some interesting pieces for my collage. Finding the main element of my collage (mostly a part of a face) is the “best part."

The trimming on all of Wortmann's collage designs is very clean and precise, which I can image has been cut with a scalpel. This allows his work to appear professional and tidy. The collage design has been placed centrally, allowing it to be the main area drawing attention. This is further enhanced by the majority of Wortmann's designs including a plain colour background, ensuring nothing is taking the viewer's attention away from the collage in the foreground.


Website: https://jenswortmann.net



7) Petra Zehner

Petra Zehner is a German graphic artist and writer based in Paris, France. Zehner is a successful and well established artist within the collaging world, proven by her foundering Paris Collage Collective.

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to."

- A quote from Jim Jarmusch, found on Zehner's website.



Zehner's work is very precise with the shape placement, allowing her designs to appear more structured and professional - seems to be a common theme with collage artists. Zehner's work often holds lots of texture with details such as paper creasing, liquid droplets, and natural scuffs, allowing the design to appear more authentic, dated and artistic.


Website: https://petrazehner.com



8) Mindfulnista

Stephanie, also known as Mindfulnista, is a graphic designer and artist who experiments with collage art. She places her art onto greeting cards and prints to then sell online. Mindfulnista's work always has a purpose and a message which it is trying to convey, typically a positive, empowering message.

"Celebrate being a beginner. Doing something new, failing, getting up, and trying again without losing your enthusiasm is a superpower. #creativity"

A reoccurring theme within Mindfulnista's work is that she always includes text within the design, which holds a meaningful, empowering message targeted towards the viewer. The next usually appears to be a cut out from a book, allowing the design to appear artistic and down-to-earth. The concept of using the same typeface through out all of her pieces allows them to look much better as a collective. The typeface she uses gives off a calming atmosphere, which is further enhanced by the common use of lowercase text.


Website: https://mindfulnista.com



9) La Paranoia

Laura, also known as La Paranoia, is an artist, videographer, photographer and artist from Barcelona, Spain. She experiments with a range of different techniques such as watercolour and linocut, but she primarily experiments with collage art due to the therapeutic nature. La Paranoia describes herself as a shy person, using collage art to say what she is not able to say with words.

“I found super powerful the idea of simplifying something so big as feelings or thoughts into small pieces of images.”

La Paranoia places the design directly central on the page, forcing it to be the main focus for the viewer. This is further enhanced with the plain, white background which all of her designs involve. The cutting is the one of the most precise and clean out of artists on this list, increasing the professionalism of the design. Alike Ben DiNino, La Paranoia has not stick these objects down to the paper, creating a natural shadow, in turn adding more tone to the design, which is interesting. This also allows La Paranoia to make any adjustments to her piece with ease, if she pleases, which is very efficient.


Website: https://laparanoia.com



10) Katie McCann

Katie McCann, also known as Beetle Blossom, is an English collage artist living in Berkeley, California. McCann describes her collages as "orderly" and "methodical".

"My collages are places where beauty is strange, creatures are curious and a sense of wonder prevails."

McCann's work is very intricate, detailed, argubally the most out of all of the artists on this list. The cutting of the different shapes is the extremely precise and clean, increasing the professionalism of the design significantly. The plain background allows all of the attention of the viewer to go towards the collage design in the foreground. McCann's designs are very detailed and are full of small objects and shapes, allowing the designs to appear more professionalism and artistic.


Website: https://www.beetleblossom.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beetleblossom/?hl=en

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