The Collage Museum of San Francisco
Curated by Winston Smith
CMSF Mission Statement
A functional space for creative artists wishing to explore the fascinating medium of collage art in all its variations. Broadcasting from the heart of San Francisco’s North Beach, CMSF is a community forum for collage artists, students, instructors and collectors.
“What always struck me about Winston’s work is his ability to make a profound comment purely by reshuffling found images in a way that is both humorous and pointed. Winston’s recent work is more beautiful than ever making his visual puns that are harsh indictments of the American Dream as an ideal even more jarring.” –Shepard Fairey
We are proud to showcase the works of these inspiring contemporary collage artists:
2015 Inductees
Three dimensional collage using antique and vintage materials. Hope has a Master of Fine Arts from San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA.
Locative Art and Paper collage. (you don’t have to call it collage if the term shocks you).
Michael Tunk takes photographs and magazines from the 1800’s-1980’s and re-contextualizes them into something beautiful. He takes refused detritus and spins a yarn of gold. He takes the weight from a hoarders home and fixes it into aesthetic candy. His pieces are never photoshopped, he uses only Xacto blades and what’s left of the bones in his wrists. Buy now before carpel tunnel grinds his hands to an octogenarian pugilist’s paws.
Dan Hartman aka “Pancreas Supervisor” is a self taught collage artist from Minneapolis MN. He uses regular house scissors, spray mount glue, glue sticks and as many random books and magazines as he can get his hands on. Hartman started out doing smaller dada inspired portraits but has since moved on to much larger pop/surrealist style landscape pieces. His main goal is to give people something interesting to look at, something with a lot of depth and seamless flow, art that you could walk around in if you were only a few inches tall.
Cut and paste collage artist from south Texas with an obsession for weirdness, pizza and jokes. Custom artwork and screen printing from space.
Building upon the foundation of forgotten ephemera, the meticulously crafted collage art of Human Wreckage transforms the simple into the sublime.
The works do not merely recount dream imagery but rather entice the viewer into a dreamlike state. The artist’s unwavering adherence to the handcut analog format is paramount. The intrinsic history of each element is as crucial to the narrative as the subject itself. Human Wreckage received a BFA from Parsons School of Design in 2001 with a major in Illustration.
Justin Angelos was born in 1971 in Los Angeles, Ca. After spending many years on the road with a job in the tradeshow industry Justin now lives in Burlingame, Ca where he is a fulltime stay at home dad and artist.
Life, death, loss and rebirth play a major role in the forming of many of his ideas. Inspired by the current state of our world and the debris man leaves in his wake Justin’s palette is often made up of found and discarded objects collected in abandoned houses, vacant lots, roadsides and second hand stores. Primitive culture, the animal world and today’s fast paced and disposable society continue to add fuel to his work.
Frank Morison is a collage artist based in Oakland, CA. His artwork strives to synthesize political and economic realities in the state and beyond.
Bowling4Rhinos (Carolyn Gair)
Carolyn Gair has been a story artist in the animation business for over 20 years working with such studios as Disney, Warner Bros and Universal. Strengths include ability to create and board sequences without pages, workshop gags and milk emotion as well as execute good staging and strong acting.
Click Here for Current Exhibition.
2014 Inductees
René Apallec, France
Francesca Berrini, Portland OR
Brian Dettmer, New York NY
Maria Gilardin, San Francisco CA
Peter Lewis, New Zealand
Joshua Madrid,
Rob Reger, Berkeley CA
Penelope Rosemont, Chicago IL
Gee Vaucher, England
Mario Wagner, Berkeley CA
Honorary Board of Directors:
Shepard Fairey
Wavy Gravy
Ben Harper
Executive Board of Directors:
Winston Smith
Rob Reger
Chick Fontaine
Past Exhibitions
Opening Exhibition Celebrating the Launching of theRude, Glued & Screwed
Curated by Winston SmithRené Apallec • Peter Lewis • Francesca Berrini
Winston Smith • Erik Chipchase • Casey Lewis
Friday, November 22nd • 7pm-10pm • Free Admission
Grant’s Tomb Crypt
50-A Bannam Place, San Francisco CA 94133 (Near the corner of Union Street and Grant Avenue in North Beach) Click here for a map.About the show and museum: With this new group exhibition at Grant’s Tomb Gallery we celebrate the launch of The Collage Museum of San Francisco. Our vision with this new endeavor is to showcase local, national and international artists who work in the medium of collage, photo-montage, assemblage and related disciplines. There is a long and colorful 200 year history of artists and creative individuals working in this field from the early 19th century and throughout the 20th century as well as an explosion of collage-based artistry in these first decades of the 21st century. The Collage Museum of San Francisco will serve to spotlight these artists’ works and to offer a resource for the artistic community that may let us explore the limitless visions of creative imagination and encourage and expand the Art of Collage.
About the Artists:
René Apallec
The works of the late René Apallec will be displayed for the first time in the United States. Mysterious and obscure, his compositions call out to us from a long vanished world that has since been swept away by the tumultuous era of the Great War. Come and explore this rare glimpse into the mind of a lost and forgotten artistic genius. www.reneapallec.com
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Peter Lewis
Peter Lewis has been creating his technicolor dreamscapes for several years from his fabled Pacific “Island Kingdom” (New Zealand). His astonishing compositions are like a psychedelic barber mirror that expands endlessly into infinity. Buckle up for this wild ride and prepare to revel in his unique vision. www.warpart.co.nz
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Francesca Berrini
Francesca Berrini is a skilled and accomplished artist who’s work resembles a head-on collision between forlorn bible stories and the slightly off-kilter world of grammar school text books. Dinosaurs frolic with beloved biblical personages. Enormous insects covert with Dick and Jane. Protozoa are soothed and coddled by famous historical characters. Inspired (if slightly twisted) fun for the whole family. www.unusualcards.com
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Winston Smith
Winston Smith’s so-called “art” has defaced the covers of countless low-life punk bands from Dead Kennedys to D.O.A. to Green Day. Throughout the last three and a half decades Winston has pursued a singular vision of artistic chaos and sublime imagery. His compositions range from the elusive to the stark. View at your own risk.
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Erik Chipchase — Mercenary Graphics
From our premier show to this new exhibition our special guest artist Erik Chipchase has been responsible for a number of iconic posters for events at Grant’s Tomb. Erik’s classic graphic style is a unique blend of Proletarian Deco and Retro-Chic.
His contributions for the launch of the Collage Museum of San Francisco are welcomed and appreciated.
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Casey Lewis
Casey Lewis has been working with several art mediums for the past 35 years from stained glass to his true passion, collage. With a heavy Dada influence Casey has incorporated fluid shapes and bold colors into his work. A true trip through abstract Jazz put to paper.
Contact: Anna@alternativetentacles.com
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Description of Project
The art of Collage, Winston Smith’s chosen medium of imaginative interpretation, has held an illustrious and mysterious position in the world of underground art and media for nearly 100 years. From the hand-cut images carefully extracted and reassembled by John Heartfield, Hannah Hoch and Max Ernst in the 1920s and ‘30s that paved the path to the Dada Movement and Surrealism, to the modern era of seamless digitally composed illustrations and advertisements – collage and its various forms are now among the most dominant visual techniques permeating the mass media and our visual culture as a whole.
Collage Museum of San Francisco, curated and directed by Winston Smith, would serve to give this medium back to the people as an accessible form of self-expression. With San Francisco’s historic reputation for nurturing the avant-garde, countless creative artists having found inspiration and encouragement in the stimulating cultural life of the City. The museum, located in the heart of traditionally bohemian North Beach, will offer a hub for the community as an educational center, and a platform for international collage artists to share their creations, techniques and insights on this discipline in its traditional form and its many variations: photo-collage, assemblage, montage, altered books and more — locally and worldwide throughout the web.
Winston has inspired a whole generation of artists and progressive thinkers through his numerous collages and illustrations for Dead Kennedys, Green Day, Spin Magazine and The New Yorker, as well as through his own ‘zine, “Fallout” and more. He chose collage as a medium in the late 1970s, as it is provides an infinite palate of colors, textures and shapes available and approachable to anyone who wishes to open their mind – and the minds of others through creative expression. Establishing a center for collage studies in the Bay Area will be a vital contribution at this critical period, providing exposure to the artistic contribution that collage as a medium has made to our modern culture, and giving artists the environment they need to bloom and inspire others.
Collage Museum of San Francisco will bring together local artists and collectors, as well as instructors and students seeking knowledge of technique and style. With the Collage Museum as a community centre we will organize special exhibits, films, workshops and guest artists to speak about their work and provide valuable demonstrations, informative lectures and historical reviews. Classes and presentations will be held in the informal gathering place, offering a relaxed, friendly atmosphere of creativity and support. Students and artists will share their experience and achievements, opening new portals and discoveries.
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