Social media influencers dominate the digital landscape with carefully curated shots and perfectly posed selfies. This artist is turning this modern phenomenon on its head by reimagining some of history’s most iconic artworks through a contemporary lens.

Meet UntitledSave, a digital collage artist from Porto, Portugal, who’s bridging the gap between classical art and modern social media culture. Through their innovative digital recreations, timeless masterpieces are transformed into what they might look like if their subjects were contemporary influencers.

The Art of Digital Transformation

UntitledSave’s work poses an intriguing question: What if the subjects of classical paintings had Instagram accounts? The results are both thought-provoking and surprisingly natural. Frida Kahlo becomes a self-aware selfie queen, while the enigmatic Mona Lisa transforms into a lifestyle blogger with that same mysterious smile we’ve wondered about for centuries.

These recreations do more than simply modernize classical works—they offer commentary on how self-presentation and artistic expression have evolved in the digital age. The artist cleverly maintains the essence of each original masterpiece while incorporating modern elements that feel surprisingly authentic to both time periods.

Notable Transformations Include:

• Frida Kahlo reimagined as a modern-day self-portrait artist and body positivity advocate
• The Mona Lisa as a lifestyle influencer, complete with subtle product placement
• Venus de Milo transformed into a fitness influencer
• Girl with a Pearl Earring as a jewelry and fashion blogger

The Untitled.Save Interview

What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Cyclist

What’s your background?
I attended a hairdressing course and have a degree in Product Design

What piece are you most proud of?
The one I’m yet to create

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
“Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today” (I rarely follow this advice)

What is one thing they tried to teach you in school that you knew immediately was wrong?
We all have the same rights

Who is the one person, dead or alive, that you would like to have dinner with and why?
I would love to have dinner with the artist JR at the yellow house in Brazil

Where is your favorite place?
It’s always wherever I’m not

Who are your biggest influences?
Salvador Dalí and Rui Reininho

Which current art world trends are you following?
I’m paying close attention to AI developments. I’ve tried it, but I haven’t yet found a personal identity in it, which is why I’ve never published anything

What can’t you live without?
Music

What is your dream project?
To have an exhibition or project in Portugal. So far, the opportunities I’ve had have always been abroad

What’s your favorite artwork?
It’s hard to pick just one, but for many months now, I’ve had Albrecht Dürer’s Praying Hands painting on the screen of my phone

What is currently on your playlist?
Vacances, L’Impératrice
Acorda, Cristina Massena
Sacatela, La Femme

What are your last three Google searches?
I don’t want to destroy my reputation haha

What gives you life?
Music

What is your superpower?
Knowing how to say no

What is your Kryptonite?
What’s that?

If you could visit any artist’s studio, whose would you visit and why?
Iryna Maksymova. In the midst of the war in Ukraine, she didn’t leave the country and continues to bring a little light to the world with her art

What ideas are you currently pondering or questioning?
How can the human race be so beautiful and twisted at the same time?

What do most people believe that you do not?
Zodiac signs

What is your favorite thing in the world?
Bacalhau à Brás

If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be, and why?
Banksy. Because of the anonymity of that collaboration

What’s next for you?
Dinner

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Elzbieta Zdunek Artist Statement

The first artistic language that I felt was mine was photography. It allowed me to portray the moment of change when suddenly nothing was as it had been before. I spoke through shadows and reflections, and usually, the story was not about the object as such, but about how it is perceived. When photographing, I am constantly on the search for the hidden surreal.

While photography allows me to catch the surreal that already exists, collages are a tool to tell my own story. And like every good story, I repeat it, embellish, rewrite. By reusing topics and elements I highlight the inevitability; the cycles and patterns in the history of humanity; the meshed hope and hopelessness; how often what we think we choose has been chosen for us beforehand. I like saying that collages are a bit like life; it is not always up to us what happens, what kind of people or events we encounter, but we do have relative liberty in what role do we allow them to play. Collages are a visual game of “what if”.

My goal is to allow viewers to read my works through their own biases and experience. I want them to decide who is the hero and who is the villain, is the outcome a blessing or a curse. I am fascinated with the concept of nature versus nurture, what makes us us, and how many different people we are depending on the eyes of the beholder.

The lockdown has brought a lot of darkness to my works. Fear, insecurity, unpredictability, have inevitably taken the main stage. However, the light keeps on popping up more and more often. Like in the silent movies that I am giving homage to, the deep shadows and brilliant highlights are what make them special.

Interview with Elzbieta Zdunek

What did you want to be when you were growing up?
I wanted to be an actress. Even though I never had the skills and courage to pursue that dream, I still consider movies the most magical and immersive of arts. The intangible feeling of entering a completely new reality is something I would like to emulate.

What artwork are you most proud of, and why?
Tomorrow belongs to me. It is one of the first pieces I made in my current style and that I felt was my artistic language. I love it for its simple yet powerful message. It is also the first piece of mine that has ever been exhibited; it has shaped me as an artist in many ways.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
To find my audience. Intellectually, it is clear that not everybody will appreciate what I do, same as I don’t like every piece of art that I encounter. Emotionally, though, it is hard to keep going when what you do doesn’t resonate. The question “am I good enough” is only natural, and so is an attempt to somehow fit in.

What is one thing they tried to teach you in school that you knew immediately was wrong?
That one day I will have to stop daydreaming and start living a serious life, and also, that I will outgrow the dark phase. Acceptance towards my own depressive thoughts and channeling them through art have brought more peace and joy than any positive psychology.

Who is the one person, dead or alive, that you would like to have dinner with and why?
Nick Cave. Few people can create such dark landscapes of the human mind where death seems a blessing and love, eternal torture.

Where is your favorite place?
I love the Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin. It feels suspended in time. I love the socrealistic architecture and its incredibly ugly beauty.

Who are your biggest influences?
I was inspired to try digital collages when I saw the works by Sergey Nehaev. I am also constantly in awe of the works of Zdzislaw Beksinski. I would like to embrace dystopian surrealism with the same mastery one day.

Can you tell me more about silent movies you art giving homage to?
I love the classics, like Metropolis, Sunrise, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. They are surprisingly modern, be it in the message, be it in the cinematography. I love the artistry, the play of lights and shadows, and the message they bring. For me, that was cinema in its purest form.

Can you tell us more about the role you see pattern playing history vs the potential to break with our past pattern and actually do something new? Do you see a tension there and a potential to break from our pattern as a species?
I think the patterns repeat because often we forget we have not only virtues but also vices. We also forget biology and instincts. We might have awareness and conscience, but they don’t fully eliminate needs and wants. I believe we can break from our patterns as individuals, but not as species. If there are enough individuals they might create a cultural norm, but it doesn’t mean the erasure of what’s underneath.

Can you tell me more about the role of personality and humanity in your work?
I am fascinated with the human mind and the concept of nature versus nurture. I constantly ask myself the questions: what makes us, us; what is taught and what is the core; who are we, if things can be learned and unlearnt. Neuroscience is fascinating, but also terrifying. Often the characters in my works are stuck, but I never give a clear answer, is it because of the circumstances, or are the limitations self-imposed? I don’t believe that anything is possible, by the way.

What can’t you live without?
Questioning and doubting, myself and others. Not a particularly healthy attitude, but very inspiring.

What is your dream project?
I would like to collaborate on a visual album: my works illustrating music. I also dream of creating three-dimensional pieces with simplistic, geometrical scenery. The message is particularly powerful when nothing distracts from it.

What’s your favorite artwork?
There are many. But one that I can’t stop thinking about is the painting by Beksinski with the hooded creature staring at a cradle. It allows for so many interpretations and creates a feeling of an almost addictive discomfort. I find something similar in the works of Rafal Masiulaniec, he is obviously inspired by Zdzislaw Beksinski too. My latest discovery is Justyna Koziczak and her album cover artwork for “Wit’s End”. The loops are simply mesmerizing, even though following them would be self-destructive.

What is currently on your playlist?
Can’t stop listening to Placebo. Loved them as a teen and recently rediscovered them. Besides, Depeche Mode, always and everywhere.

What are your last three Google searches?
Abandoned metro stations. Spelling of chiaroscuro. Honkaku novels.

What gives you life?
Having a goal. Even the tiniest one allows us to build structure.

What is your superpower?
Noticing connections where there are hardly any, and abstract thinking.

What is your Kryptonite?
Unstoppable persistence and stubbornness. It’s not that I don’t give up, it’s that I become obsessed and lose other opportunities from the sight.

If you could visit any artist’s studio, whose would you visit and why?
I would like to visit a music studio. Music is an art that I can only consume; I would like to observe the process of writing music, how the inspiration works, how different instruments impact the style and the meaning. Music is a foreign, but utterly fascinating land for me.

What was the last thing you bought?
Yet another black dress. I have too many, but in my defense, they’re all different.

What ideas are you currently pondering or questioning?
How does brainwashing and the process of listening to and believing in a cult exactly happen in the brain? I feel incredible discomfort but also an unhealthy fascination when people do not question leaders, idols, anybody, in fact.

What do most people believe that you do not?
That things happen for a reason and that mindset is everything. It’s a very one-size-fits-all attitude.

What is one thing you believe that most people do not?
That work from home – especially the creative tasks – is harmful and detrimental to development. Individual tasks might be done faster, but they become repetitive. It is the discomfort and the interactions with others – positive and negative – that have always been the source of progress and innovation, and the impulse to change the status quo.

What imaginary place would you love to visit?
Gotham. A big city, dystopia, feeling of despair The vibes that make me think and create.

What is your favorite thing in the world, and why?
The feeling just after I post the latest artwork online. From now on, it has a life of its own. It can travel wherever appear to anyone, I have no control anymore. It’s the closest to letting go I ever get.

If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be, and why?
I’d like to work with Editors. Their music is like a black-and-white photograph of an abandoned urban space. I’d like to illustrate it.

What’s next?
I’ve been thinking about a visual story, a collection that reads like a book. So far, all the scenes that I visualize are very allegorical, like the works of Hieronymus Bosch. I wanted to introduce more light to my art after a period of darkness, but it seems it will not happen yet.

BIO

Elzbieta “Ela” Zdunek is a Polish collagist based in Berlin. While art has always been present in her life, it was the pandemic and the lockdown when collaging became her creative outlet and a way to tell her own story.
Zdunek’s unique style captures human and dehumanizing concepts at the same time. She focuses on repeating patterns in history, how often what we are free to choose has been chosen for us beforehand. She portrays the moment of change when we don’t know yet if the result is a blessing or a curse.
She has exhibited in New York and California, her works have also been published in several art magazines.

CV

December 2021: The Uncanny Exhibition, The Chateau Gallery (US)
November 2021: NEMESIS Exhibition, The Holy Art (UK)
November 2021: So Real – Surreal Exhibition, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts (US)
November 2021: Digital, Collage or Assemblage Exhibition, Las Laguna Art Gallery (US)
September 2021: EMPTINESS Exhibition, Exhibizone (CA)
August 2021: CONNECTION Exhibition, Art Fluent (US)
April 2021: Award of Merit, “Anything” Exhibition, Gallery Ring (US)
April 2021: Participating Artist at NYC ArtWalk, Art Fair, Brooklyn (US)
March 2021: Artist of the Week, Oddball Space (UK)
March 2021: Women in Art Exhibition, Las Laguna Art Gallery (US)
February 2021: The Working Artist Magazine (UK)
February 2021: Art Hole Magazine (UK)
January-February 2021: Body-Mind-Spirit Exhibition, JMane Gallery (US)
January-February 2021: RE:INVENT Exhibition, GalleryA118 (US)
October 2020: First Prize Photography Competition “Monochrome”, Photographers in Finland
September 2020: Feature, Gallery Dreaming in Collages (online)
November 2019: Our Amazing Planet Photography Exhibition (IL)
October 2019: Amazing Architecture Photography Exhibition, Art Market Budapest (HU)
August 2019: Borders Photography Exhibition, Hinterland Gallery (AT)

Concetta utilizes her own photography as well as found and digital imagery to create surrealistic collage that make unexpected connections between line, form, space, and color. She explores these relationships and aims to both engage the viewer in the spontaneous process of finding meaning within the visual landscape and arouse a touch of mystery—this synergy she ultimately desires to achieve is the driving force behind why she creates. In her work, she touches upon themes of spirituality, magic and conjuring, the exploration of the human psyche, confession, art as therapy, and the surreal.

Interview with Michelle Concetta

Surrealism Today: What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Michelle Concetta: Growing up!? Still figuring out that bit. My younger years were fraught and I lacked the foundation and security to actualize but I have always been a creator focused on artistic expression. 

ST: What artwork are you most proud of, and why?
MC: The work I haven’t yet completed! It is a sign that I’m on the right path and the dream is alive.

ST: What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
MC: The solicited kind. Because I’m open to it. 

ST: What is one thing they tried to teach you in school that you knew immediately was wrong?
MC: That boys will be boys. 

ST: Who is the one person, dead or alive, that you would like to have dinner with and why?
MC: Lars Von Trier. I want to discuss the cinematic themes he explores.

Surrealism Today: Where is your favorite place?
Michelle Concetta: My dreams. Yes, I am a total escapist.

ST: Who are your biggest influences?
MC: Me, myself, and I. 

ST: What can’t you live without?
MC: The essential things invisible to the eye. Antoine de Saint-Exupery said something to that effect.

ST: What is your dream project?
MC: To create an exhibition of my project, I Only Wanted to Dream. Art, sculpture, interactive installations, and media combine to share a story of grief and trauma with the intent to move beyond victimhood through ritual practice.

Surrealism Today: What’s your favorite artwork?
Michelle Concetta: So many but a mixed-media piece created by Julia Soboleva, comes to mind. I will describe it to you. It features a behind with a hand pulling down black panties. On the left buttock it says “Being” and on the right cheek it says “Nothingness”.  I adore it.

ST: What is currently on your playlist?
MC: I haven’t been listening to much music these days when I am alone. I just returned with my guitar, which has been neglected for far too long.  I am planning on picking it up again and making my own music. 

ST: What are your last three Google searches?
MC: NFTs, Porto art scene, and the definition of bollard, which BTW is a British word for a post. 

ST: What gives you life?
MC: Love & Art.

Surrealism Today: What is your superpower?
Michelle Concetta: Empathy.

ST: What is your Kryptonite?
MC: Seeing people in pain.

ST: If you could visit any artist’s studio, whose would you visit and why?
MC: Natalie Huth, a Berlin collagist. She is an amazing artist living & working in an edgy, progressive city!

ST: What was the last thing you bought?
MC: A patio umbrella to shield my roof  from the scorching summer sun in Arabia.

Surrealism Today: What ideas are you currently pondering or questioning?
Michelle Concetta: Mortality and the question of making sacrifices in the moment for the future. 

ST: What do most people believe that you do not?
MC: That the older you get the harder it is to change. 

ST: What is one thing you believe that most people do not?
MC: That astrology is legit.

ST: What imaginary place would you love to visit?
MC: I visit them every night in my dreams!

ST: What is your favorite thing in the world, and why?
MC: Traveling with my partner and daughter when the stars align—it is a way for us to be together and share a love of exploration. That is, once I get over my initial anxiety and stress in preparation for travel!

ST: If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be, and why?
MC: Xeno and Oaklander, a synth and video duo. They are an experimental electronic band and really cool!  I would love to get out of my comfort zone and create artwork for their videos and/or album covers.

Surrealism Today: What is next for you?
Michelle Concetta: Keep on keeping on.

Website: drimartz.com
Social: Facebook | Instagram

Who is SLip?

SLip is a french digital collage artist working professionally for more than ten years. The artists’ clean, mod aesthetic marries yesterday’s nostalgic Sci-fi dreams in crisp, modern Technicolor.

The Work

Lovely memories of the sci-fi future that has not yet arrived, SLip reminds us of those more charming futures–of those hopeful expectations we’d forgotten–in the quaint imaginations of yesterday.

Found in exhibitions worldwide, magazines, vinyl albums, and clothing brands, SLip’s inspiring collages can be are lurking in every corner of the globe, following you, watching, waiting. Reminding us of what we need to remember. Of what we can, and should be.

In collaboration with Paperwallet, SLip’s work calls for you from Guggenheim Museum store’s shelves in New York.

Featured in Hypebeast, Gentside, France Inter, Konbini, Les Inrocks, still he feed instagram bi-weekly, where you can follow him at @iamslip.

iamslip.com
instagram.com/iamslip/

Known alternatively as the Lowbrow movement, Pop Surrealism is an art form that originated in LA’s underground scene in the 1970s. Like other surrealist art forms, lowbrow art strives to reach deep into the unconscious mind and bring to life our innermost thoughts. Our compulsions, hidden memories, and more are displayed in unusual and absurd ways, no matter how light or dark. In this movement, however, artists draw inspiration from popular culture. In a pop surrealist collage, an artist may take inspiration from cartoons, street art, various music scenes, comics, pinups, and modern-day brands, amongst other things.

Pop surrealism is all about breaking the rules of conventional art— that’s why lowbrow artists strive to make up their own. Some critics turn their noses up at this art movement and, at times, even question its validity. Nonetheless, pop surrealists understand the power of borrowing aspects of pop culture and turning them on their head to create something unique, that connects with audiences in an utterly profound way.

Are you interested in learning more about the lowbrow movement? Take a look at the following profiles of some of the world’s best pop surrealist collage artists. 

Some of Today’s Best Lowbrow and Collage Artists

Side Dimes

Mikayla Lapierre is a Brooklyn based art director with a strong background in advertising design and graphic design. Lapierre’s works, self-titled “Side Dimes”, dissect the cultural and societal norms surrounding femininity. In most of her works, she takes 18th and 19th-century portraiture and digitally imprints modern-day items that the women in her pieces interact with. The women in these classical portraits can be seen chewing bubblegum, posing with fast food, and wearing branded jewelry. In her most recent series, Lapierre experiments with personal protective equipment and stacks of toilet paper in her Social Distancing Series — a response to the current events surrounding COVID-19. 

Linz Sepe

San Diego artist Lindsey “Linz” Sepe is known for her otherworldly prints. The events in her works feel as though they are happening on another planet, or perhaps even an Earth in another dimension. From skateboarding on Saturn’s rings to lounging on the moon to trippy time warps, Sepe’s works are far from boring to look at. West-coast beach pop influences are highly apparent in Sepe’s pieces. She often incorporates vintage photos of bikini-clad models, palm trees, vintage architecture, and intense pops of color.

Jeff Drew Pictures

Jeff Drew is a musician, animator, and graphic designer. Where he’s gaining increasing notoriety, however, is his surrealist artwork. Drew takes inspiration from a seemingly endless number of sources, but perhaps the two most apparent are vintage movie (as well as burlesque) posters and the world of the occult. Much like a deck of tarot cards, Drew encapsulates many of his works with elaborate borders and labels his creations with bold graphic titles or descriptions. Drew often plays with the concept of duality, whether it’s through the literal use of masks or the interpretation of beloved television characters as more than what they seem. 

Tyler Varsell

Artist and illustrator Tyler Varsell is based in Connecticut. Her works have been published in esteemed publications like the New York Times and Kolaj Magazine. Varsell uses collage as a means of identifying and questioning our world. Though her emotional intent varies between works, as with all artists, Varsells works have a tranquil and even comforting quality about them. Varsell’s collages mesh symbols of her own subconscious thoughts and memories with appealing landscapes and symbols that bring a smile to the viewer’s face. After all, what food lover wouldn’t want to smother themselves in a bed of mac & cheese?

Taudalpoi

Tau Dal Poi (stylized online as “Taudalpoi”) is a Norweigan artist based currently in London. His works are simpler in design than some of the other artists on this list, but no less expertly crafted. Taudalpoi’s mixes awe-inspiring cosmic graphics with natural landscapes, or pieces of modern architecture — or, in some cases, both. The human subjects in his prints are often miniaturized, causing the viewer to reflect on how small we truly are in this vast universe. While other artists push to make showcase this fact as sobering, or even disheartening, Taudalpoi’s subjects enjoy the expanse, feeling joy, tranquility, freedom, and power. As a result, we feel the same. 

Phil Jones

Artist and product designer Phil Jones has an incredible sense of humor, which he imbues in nearly everything he creates. Jones works across a variety of mediums, including film, photography, and design. If you aren’t aware of his “Lord of the Flies” swatter, you should be. The majority of Jones’ artwork is more print than collage work, and these prints are minimalist in nature. Nonetheless, they are surrealist works that comment on various aspects of popular culture. Jones makes it his challenge to take idioms and puns and turn them into lighthearted pictures that are bound to make you smile.

Lorien Stern

Graphic and ceramic artist Lorien Stern runs her brand out of Inyokern California. In her work, her intention is to bring joy to her audience through her rounded and inviting designs and comforting subject matter. Stern’s main subjects are animals of several varieties. She displays keen interests in predators and marine life (mainly sharks), the intimidating features of which she disarms with bright colors and bright prints. In her creations, Stern takes these real-life animals and turns them into surreal creations — fantasy creatures that leave adults and children alike in awe.

Heather Heininge

The works of Heather Heininge blur the lines between surrealist collage and reality. The stunning landscapes in her prints are so artfully crafted together, you might confuse them for photographs of real places. While this bafflement is a coveted reaction by most artists in the world of lowbrow, Heininge’s collages are anything but true to life. Heininge often experiments with doorways and portals to other worlds. Her human subjects are nearly always in a state of travel or contemplation — perhaps a purposeful reflection on the human desire to search for more on both spiritual and physical plains. 

Luisa Azevedo

Based in Lisbon, Portugal, Luisa Azevedo has turned heads in the art world since she was 18 years old. Azevedo started experimenting with surrealism in 2015. After some practice, she began to develop her own unique style a year later. She began using real-life photographs of locations, objects, and animals to build fantasy creations that any Hollywood exec would beg to use as conceptual work for their next big feature. In her efforts to satisfy her need for magic, Azevedo has used flora and fauna to create hundreds of fantastical creatures and environments that anyone would hope to visit.  

Justine Henderson

Expert photographer and salsa maker extraordinaire, Justine Henderson is also beginning to dive into the world of pop surrealism. In her collage work, Henderson experiments with wide-open spaces like desert plains, empty roads, and serene mountain ranges. Her sources are typically vintage, as seen in her use of a gun-slinging western hero in her print, The Gods Must Be Crazy. In each piece, she gives her audience an intriguing focal point, which is often out-of-place in contrast to the rest of the setting. Though her catalog of collage work is currently limited, her pieces have gained high favor in the art community.

Mr.babies

A self-described “psychedelic analog collage artist”, the Arizona-based Mr.babies is well on his way to becoming a household name in the world of surrealist art. Mr.babies uses collage as a form of meditation and reflection. He starts with a vintage base and works digitally to create a psychedelic symphony of mind-blowing imagery. His expertly crafted collages are at times so intricate that one could spend hours finding new meaning in every square inch. At other times, Mr.babies delivers simpler works meant to convey a single message or emotion.

Irie Wata

Irie Wata’s collages can be identified for their tendencies to bend the physical rules of our world. In her prints, you can find people frolicking and driving their cars in the sky, playing pool on the moon, and relaxing by the world’s literal edge. Wata creates a stark dichotomy in each and every one of her pieces. She mixes the activities of everyday living with environmental oddities and even catastrophic events. Though her interpretation can vary between viewers, Wata seems to illustrate humanity’s ignorance of the beauty of our planet – and the catastrophe we cause when we take it for granted.  

Richard Vergez

Born in Philadelphia and currently based in South Florida, Cuban-American artist Richard Vergez uses collage to showcase his ideas and perspectives on how human beings interact with each other. Vergez’s work has been featured in New York, Chicago, Londo, France, and Argentina, among others. His mixed-media collages are often minimalist works — a few special elements chosen to help Vergez create profound stories. Nearly all of his works are human-centric; his subjects are often depicted in mid-action or altered to showcase specific ideas about the human psyche. 

As you can see from the wondrous works of these artists, pop surrealism varies significantly in design and execution. Pop culture is vast, and an artist could head in any direction when developing concepts and deciding which media they should use to convey them. This, however, is what makes pop surrealist collage work so profound.

Melbourne artist Xtian was conceived in East Germany but born in Hungary – that makes him one part Australian and two parts former communist.

He’s been actively collaging for two-plus decades – but is not adverse to making music or short animations. His works can best be described as questions, or “edge of comprehension”. He has exhibited and been published both locally and overseas – most recently by Oyster Moon Press’ Hydrolith 2: Surrealist Research & Investigations.

He is also one half of the now ten-year-old – and still growing! – exquisite corpse project The Infinite Collage (close to 80m long!), and is the creator of the longest-running surreal collage comic series The Micturating Angel.

Xtian is the founder of Melbourne Kollage Ultra, and a contributing member of a number of other collage groups.

Artist Statement

(Before you proceed: the images are an extract from a much larger work.)

“…too arty for comic book lovers, too comic booky for art lovers…”

Do you like comics? So do I. Marvel? Hell no! Okay, we’re gonna be friends then.

This is not an “artist statement” – that will come some other time. This is an introduction to “The Micturating Angel”. A spiel. A sales-pitch. But not an explanation – maybe an excuse? A necessary use of words to explain images that have already said all they can?

Do you like comics? I mean REAL comics, like Charles Burns’ stuff, or Druillet’s or Kago Shintaro or Nihei Tsutomu? Or “The Sandman” series by Neil Gaiman?

Right.

But what about weird stuff by the original Surrealists and the Dadas? Are you familiar with Max Ernst’s collage novels or Gilliam’s animations from Monty Python? What about free jazz, avant-garde music and the writings of William Burroughs? The (good) films of David Lynch? Those books from the 90s put out by V. Vale, the “REsearch” books? Are you familiar with the æsthetics of early industrial music culture or with the visuals of punk underground collages and photocopy art?

Am I laying this on too thick?

You wanted a statement, an introduction, so a schooling you’re gonna get, son.

Right. We’ve established the basics, so meet “The Micturating Angel”, the “Naked Lunch” of comic books! I unashamedly call it a comic, ‘graphic novels’ are for pretentious twats. But its a comic with a fatal flaw: too arty for comic book lovers, too comic booky for art lovers – where do you draw the line?

Why even draw it? (And why even draw a comic in the first place?)

I grew up in Eastern Europe, pre-Fall-of-Communism, so my background is a little different from yours. I read mostly French comics translated into Magyar, I read nonsense literature from Germany and local writers and science books (never became an astronaut though). Emigration was a grand adventure and high school was a ridiculous shock: all the beauty of learning coupled with everyone hammering a round peg into a square whole.

Squares man. They can be so beautiful when they’re not people.

Like the panels of a comic book. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

In high school, I invented surrealist writing – not being aware of its well-established existence. It saved my brain for greater things. Eventually, I met some actual surrealists, some actual poets, and artists and some actual interesting life.

And here we are today – and I’d like you to meet my children – The Micturating Angels (there’s more than one).

Q: What does “micturating” mean?
A: Pissing.
Q: Wut?
A: It’s all you get.

A surreal collage art-comic series seven years in the making (and counting). Somewhere between 2ooo – 3ooo collages in total, including the guest stars, the Secret Chiefs (guys in charge of this here Cosmos). Unraveling the adventures and sanity levels of young girls against their captive, oppressive world (is this a feminist comic? I don’t know…). Young girls against crappy old men and institutions, religious zealots, ignorance vs. science, freaks!

Drawing on source materials ranging from hardware catalogues to religious imagery to medical illustrations, alchemical instructions, furniture assembly instructions, “dirty” comics, mangas, giallos, and cannibalistic self-re-absorptions, the “Necronomicon” (containing not all but most of the sigils of the “Fifty Sacred Names of Marduk”), engineer’s manuals and mathematical formulæ

– do you still like comic books?

Then you’ll love this one! Playing with the conventions of comics to create striking visuals, adventures revealed through non-linear story-telling and complete non-sense dialogue – yes, the words are a red herring – “The Micturating Angel” is a unique comic that will never be understood by anyone – and that makes it an enduring mystery, I hope. (Aren’t questions better than answers? No, they’re not. But Bigfoot is more interesting when you DON’T know that it’s just mountain-lion footprints.)

And there it is. My seven-year Grand Opus, unlike its predecessors (all the other books I’ve made), and a never to be repeated exercise by me. And I WANT you to enjoy it! I really do, I want you to look beyond the confusion, I want you to stop trying to make sense of it and revel in what it actually IS: an ever-shifting series of nightmares laid out like the storyboard of a Hollywood blockbuster that will never be made.

Welcome aboard. I hope you like THIS comic.

– Xtian, 2019

“I LOVE your collage work! It is VERY surreal… your comics are great! … Good luck with your project!”
– Rev. Ivan Stang, Church of the Subgenius

“… a very original comic…”
– Surrealismo Internacional

Books: lulu.com/spotlight/gadzooxtian
Prints: redbubble.com/people/Gadzooxtian
Facebook: facebook.com/The-Micturating-Angel-1609957469288457
Site: gadzooxtian.com

Imagine a world where linear time has lost all relevance. A place where past memories and future visions dance in a familiar present gone awry, this is where nightmares collide with lucid clarity. Touching on topics diverse as ecology, science, architecture, and spirituality.

instagram.com/albanesurrealcollagist/

Seamless is a Digital Composite Collage Artist

Artist: Seamless on Redbubble
Prints: Seamless on Society6

In post-war Japan, a shortage of goods and materials meant the country was flooded with commodities from foreign countries. Okanoue used fragments from Western fashion magazines such as Life, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, to create radical compositions combining body parts, animals and inanimate objects in dynamic arrangements. Although the component parts of her collages originated from Western sources, Okanoue herself regarded her technique of image making as deeply rooted in Japanese tradition. She thought of her works as a form of hari-e (‘hari’ meaning pasting and ‘e’ meaning a picture in Japanese), a traditional Japanese technique of making pictures by pasting small pieces of coloured paper onto pasteboard.

It was only in 1952, upon meeting the poet and artist Shuzo Takiguchi, that Okanoue found her own place in art history. Takiguchi was a leading figure of the Surrealist movement in Japan, and introduced Okanoue to the works of the famous Surrealist, Max Ernst, whose style had a decisive influence on her. During the subsequent six years, Okanoue produced over 100 works. Her collages remained idiosyncratic and dreamlike in their juxtaposition of contradictory imagery. In 1953 and 1956, she held solo exhibitions at Takemiya Gallery, Tokyo. However, as with many Japanese women of this era, her marriage in 1957 ended her artistic career.

Okanoue returned to her hometown of Kochi, where she now lives. She is married to the painter Fujino Kazutomo. Her work faded into obscurity and was overlooked for almost 40 years. However, it was rediscovered by the curator of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in the mid 1990s, and has since gained recognition for its contribution to the Japanese avant-garde. In 1996 her works was shown in Meguro Museum of Art, and has subsequently been collected by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

– via huxleyparlour.com/toshiko-okanoue-a-surrealist-in-japan/

Evan Lawrence creates strange and contemporary surreal art. Self-taught, Lawrence uses ambiguous symbolism to explore his transcendent visions. He is inspired by “the delusion of the beautiful things until the weird moments; represented by the emotional feeling of himself”.

Lawrence’s work is part reminiscence and part artifact of his own inner meditations. Reflecting on past experiences and encounters, the work raises questions of identity, meaning, and representation. Lawrence hopes his work ultimately contributes to a better world by acting as a mirror the viewers’ subconscious.

Artist Statement

“I see art personally as the bridge between conscious and subconscious, between what is real and not real. I express and balance my ego with it. Surrealism is like an escape room for me, a self-investigation of identity. I always try to infuse each piece of my work with my feelings, desires, moods, and dreams of the moment, using art as a basic language; transliterate the noetic perceptions into explicit views.”

https://www.instagram.com/vanlawrenc.art/
https://www.facebook.com/vanlawrenc.art

Buy Prints:

Open Edition: INPRNT – Evan Lawrence
Limited Prints: SPASIUM – Evan Lawrence
Signature Edition: CURIOOS – Evan Lawrence