Shifting Dimensions, Torn paper collage, Janet Black
Artists in The Collage Lab, a Buenaventura Art Association offshoot started in 2014 to experiment in collage and mixed media, will show new works in “Ephemera,” a July 5-Aug. 31 exhibition in Studio 99 at Bell Arts Factory in Ventura.
Participating members — Janet Black, Karen Hoffberg, Darlene Roker, Wendy Winet, Janna Valenzuela, Karen L. Brown, Joyce Lombard, Dorothea Heger and Tasia Erickson — will be on hand for First Friday receptions from 6-9 p.m. July 5 and Aug. 2. The group meets monthly to set creative challenges, share ideas and results, demonstrate techniques, and occasionally to visit galleries.
Collage is from the French verb coller, to glue — a pictorial art form that can include paper and many other materials. Ephemera is defined as “items of memorabilia, often written or printed on paper, originally meant to be discarded after use but that have become collectibles.”
The displayed works will incorporate many such items, including postage stamps, handwritten letters, packaging and wrapping paper. Obviously, collectibility is in the eye of the collage artist.
Many group members are not primarily collage artists, but accomplished printmakers, painters, quilters, photographers, weavers, graphic designers, encaustic painters and watercolorists. Some pieces in the exhibit result from challenges by individual members to use a particular material, color, theme, size, etc.; others are works independently created by the artists. Subject matters vary widely, as do techniques.
They also assembled $10 make-your-own-collage packets, for those who’d like to try the fascinating medium. The packets include several kinds of ephemera in different combinations collected by Collage Lab artists.
A collection of the group members’ previous collage artworks is available online for $10.50 at https://www.blurb.com/b/11624966-the-collage-lab and some will be at the gallery.
Buenaventura Art Association, this year celebrating the 70th anniversary of its 1954 founding, operates Studio 99 at 432 N. Ventura Ave., which is open noon-4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and has an outlet at Harbor Village Gallery & Gifts and a display at SpiceTopia, a Ventura retail store.
Harbor Village Gallery & Gifts, at 1559 Spinnaker Drive, Suite 106, in Ventura Harbor, is open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. seven days a week. SpiceTopia, at 576 E. Main St., is also open daily, but its hours vary.
For more about BAA and its programs, call the gallery at 805-648-1235 or visit buenaventuraartassociation.org.
