There is an exhibition running in Huntington New York, from October through January of 2012, entitled “Ripped: The Allure of Collage”. It is taking place at the Heckscher Museum of Art.
Nancy Scheinman, Jeweled Sky — Silent Music of Immortals
The word collage comes the French, coller, to glue. A work of collage art is made up of bits and pieces of other items, glued to paper or canvas. It can include a wide variety of inclusions, such as newspaper, ribbons, hand-made paper, photographs, and found objects.
The art of collage can be traced back to twelfth-century Japanese calligraphers. They prepared special surfaces upon which to paint brushstrokes of poetry, creating a background of bits of paper and fabric.
Conrad Marca-Relli, Turquoise Stripes
Collage was the first medium in the twentieth century to challenge the sanctity of the age-old forms of painting and sculpture. -from artdaily.org
As you can see from the sampling of photos, collage can encompass any and every style of art. The first use of collage in fine art is generally attributed to Picasso and Braques, who experimented with collage as an extension of their cubist principles.
Locally, here in the Midwest, take a look at my neighbor and friend, collage artist Terri Smith. She experiments with several styles of collage, from humorous collage art pins, to custom designed collage portraits, to collaged chairs. Visit her blog: http://tls-art.blogspot.com/
Rowanberry Studio Blog 