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World Collage Day: May 10, 2025
May 01, 2025
Henry A. Brown, Untitled, cut paper collage, 2019.57.2.
Jeff Colby, Understanding, collage, 1994, 2002.38.1.
Jane Hammond, Ho-A-Puh #1, collage and acrylic on rag paper,
2006, 2024.18.1.
Bogulaw Bachorczyk, Gski, Gski, Do Domu, mixed
media collage, 2023.58.1.
Chase Covell, Untitled, mixed media collage, 2012, 2022.35.3c.
Kendra Postma, Survival Guide, mixed media, 2021, 2021.63.1.
Did you know that the second Saturday of May is World Collage Day?
Collage is both an art technique as well as a name for the resulting work of art in which pieces of paper, photographs, fabric, and other ephemera are arranged and attached to a supporting substrate. Images are often cut, torn, or otherwise taken from ready-made materials like magazine pages, newspapers, or books but can also be sections of colored or painted paper or fabric. While a common technique for decorators and hobbyists alike for decades, Cubists George Braque and Pablo Picasso incorporated bits of newspaper and wallpaper into their paintings, bringing the technique into the fine-art world. Collage later became a dominant technique in the Dada, Surrealist, Pop Art, and New-Dada art movements. Since collage often incorporates mass-produced images, it can easily become a mode of powerful social commentary.
World Collage Day is an annual, international celebration of the art of collage on the second Saturday of May. It was started in 2018 by Kolaj Magazine, a publication that strives to support artists and creators who seek to deepen our understanding of collage as a medium, a genre, and a community.
World Collage Day celebrates bringing different things together to create new forms and new ways of thinking. Be inspired, gather your materials, and create a collage that represents YOU!
Explore collages in the GVSU Art Museum Collection.
Check out more about the official World Collage Day with Kolaj Magazine.