Everything but the Kitchen Sink! A Fine Art Exhibit of Assemblage & Collage.

September 30 - October 29, 2021

Receptions: Friday, October 1st, 6-9 and Sunday, October 17th, 2-5.

The art of assemblage originated early in the twentieth century, as Pablo Picasso affixed a piece of oilcloth, printed to simulate chair caning, to a canvas on which he was painting a cubist still life.  Georges Braque introduced newsprint into his drawings; and the third great cubist, Juan Gris, added mirror-glass, photographs, and other extraneous materials to his oil paintings. An "assemblage," is a work of art made by fastening together cut or torn pieces of paper, clippings from newspapers, photographs, bits of cloth, fragments of wood, metal, or other such materials, shells or stones, or even objects such as knives and forks, chairs and tables, parts of dolls and mannequins, automobile fenders, steel boilers, and stuffed birds and animals. Between 1912 and now, assemblage has developed as a form of fine art recognized by all contemporary museums and artists.

From our Juror, Marat Paransky:  "I used to joke that if my art career did not work out, I would become a garbageman. Strangely, today I find myself somewhere between the worlds of art and waste.  This project is driven by an interest in the discarded, temporary and overlooked. That it touches on reusing is important, but secondary. Rather, it is a glimpse at the intricacies and thinking that go into the chance objects, designs and materials that pass through our hands on a daily basis.

Along with found objects and images, the raw materials for this group of works are my older artworks, my studio waste (leftover paints and glues) and other people’s studio waste.  These elements are mixed and remixed into new works in several cycles.  Some of the resulting collages and assemblages go through three to five iterations, each one several years apart.  Certain works will have no foreseeable end point. I prefer mutating the artworks on a continuous basis and exploring what happens when there is no defined end goal and no “official version”."

Marat Paransky has selected 50 very unique and  interesting pieces, in the form of assemblage, collage and we invite you to come in and see it all. He has selected the "Best of Show" and "2nd Place" awards, along with Honorable Mentions, and we ask visitors to select the "People Choice" award.