BLACK MOUNTAIN COLL(A)GE Exhibition Set For May

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center will present Black Mountain COLL(A)GE, an exhibition tracing the presence of collage through the history and legacy of the renowned liberal arts college. Combining work by Black Mountain College artists with select contemporary collagists, the exhibition foregrounds transformation as a radical strategy, assembling an ever-shifting picture of collage as medium, method, and memory.

From Josef Albers' matière exercises to the collaborative 1951 “Glyph Exchange” between Charles Olson, Ben Shahn and Katherine Litz, cutting up and rearranging found material was a way of life at Black Mountain College. Some of the 20th century's most influential collage practitioners, including Robert Rauschenberg and Ray Johnson, studied at BMC. Many other students took up collage as a life-long medium, including Irwin Kremen, William Douglas McGee, Jo Sandman, John Urbain, Mary Parks Washington, and Susan Weil. Still others continued to experiment with cut-ups while working in other realms of creative production, such as the writer and critic Suzi Gablik. Today, collage continues to exert a powerful influence on our art ecosystem. Selected works from contemporary collagists contextualize the medium's trajectory and provide a window into the future. Curated by Kira Houston, this exhibition pieces together a wide array of stories to encapsulate a visual and sonic exploration of Black Mountain COLL(A)GE.

The exhibition features works by Black Mountain College artists including Roberta Blair, Margaret Balzer Cantieni, Fielding Dawson, William Douglas McGee, Jorge Fick, Joseph Fiore, Suzi Gablik, W.P. Jennerjahn, Elizabeth Jennerjahn, Ray Johnson, Irwin Kremen, Robin Morey, Robert Motherwell, Faith Murray Britton, Mary Parks Washington, René Pinchuk, Robert Rauschenberg, M.C. Richards, Jo Sandman, John Urbain, Jean Varda, and Susan Weil. Contemporary works by artists Lucas Samaras, Julian Jamaal Jones, Elias Sime, Andy Gambrell, and Swannatopia will explore permutations of collage beyond BMC.