The Helen Christou Gallery exposes compelling layers of the U of L Art Collection with Collage aux folles, on display from June 11 to Aug. 28 in the Helen Christou Gallery.

The exhibition explores collage as a formative creative process and elevated fine art technique using enticing selections from both Canadian and American artists.

"The collage process embodies the ideas of postmodernism more perfectly than perhaps any other in contemporary art making," says exhibition curator Jane Edmundson. "Though the technique is as ancient as paper itself, collage rose to fine art status in the early 20th century when Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque employed it in their Cubist compositions to heighten the visual collision between media and the surface plane of the canvas."

"The technique continued to be popular with Dada artists, who created the first photomontages that have since become ubiquitous in the current digital age of Photoshop pastiche," she says. "Collage's sustained popularity with conceptual artists has not been limited to visual media; cinematic montage and the samples and remixes of popular music also demonstrate how this process of appropriated layering is prevalent in our daily lives."

Featuring works by Ron Kitai, Deborah Shackleton, Takao Tanabe, Tony Urquhart and Kim Kozzi of Fast Wurms, this exhibition showcases a wide example of collage styles and forms.

"The artwork I chose ranges from quick sketches to fully realized objects, demonstrating how collage has been utilized as both a formative creative process and elevated fine art technique," says Edmundson. "While some make use of found objects or re-appropriated print images, others focus on overlapping texture, colour and shape to arrive at a more abstract final product."

To learn more visit: www.uleth.ca/artgallery