Wood, paint, collage, 57 ⅜ x 47 in.
Rochelle Voyles’s work is an excavation of visual history, a kind of speculative archaeology that wrests imagery from its original context to reveal new dimensions of memory and meaning. By reconfiguring found photographs into sculptural, glyph-like forms, she invites us into an exploration of the tension between what images claim to document and what they conceal. Her pieces are like artifacts from an alternate past, suspended between familiarity and mystery, a liminal space where memory and truth intermingle and shift.
Paper collage, 8 x 6.5 in.
I’m always exploring the smallness of the individual versus the vastness of life. Sifting through images that span just the past 100 years always reminds me of how big, complex, and multidimensional this world is. We haven’t been here long as a species, and yet we have this intense energy of immediacy and importance. History is made not just by the winners, but by engaging with the evidence left behind. In some way my work is showing what I’ve found to others for them to pick through and formulate their own conclusions.
Paper collage,13 ⅛” x 11 ⅞ in.
I work with wood, paint, and found photographs. To make my large scale cutouts I use a jigsaw as an extension of my hand to draw shapes informed by textile diagrams. Growing up surrounded by female mentors who were fiber artists, I loved the diagrams and pattern books these women carried with them in their project bags. These booklets laid out a clear picture of how something was supposed to function and be, and I’ve always felt comforted by this definitive framework. I like to use these shapes as a substrate that I build and collage onto the surface of.
The images I use come from many different places including books and magazines I’ve found in the streets of New York, while traveling, and materials that have been given to me by someone clearing out their apartment or moving. I’m partial to images of nature, historical events like wars, celebrations, and revolutions, cinema, home interiors, archeological dig sites, and textiles.
Paper collage, 14.5" x 8 in.
Wood, paint, collage, 57” x 43 in.
I use fiber patterns as a mapping device for my found images to be plotted onto, and as the foundation for the cuts in my paper collages. I scale up and skew these forms, creating large cutouts of these shapes in wood that skew linguistic. A textile pattern or diagram is transformed into a shape, charged with an image, and becomes an alien glyph.
My practice is as investigative as it is generative. I act as a detective, an archaeologist, and a magpie; collecting paper evidence to form connections and to try to understand our history and life on this planet.
Paper collage, 13.5"x12.25 in.
Paper collage, 8.25 x 10.25 in.
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Rochelle Voyles (b. 1989, Toledo, Ohio) is a Brooklyn based multi-disciplinary artist who pushes the boundaries of what hand cut collage can be.
She dislocates, interrupts, and re-purposes found images in order to decontextualize her experience of reality and decipher our collective relationship to photographs. Using textile diagrams and languages as the basis of her cuts, she creates layered and at times abstracted images that challenge viewers to identify the original context of their parts.
For Your Viewing Pleasure
CHRIS ASHWORTH is a graphic designer and creative director renowned for his bold, experimental approach to typography and visual storytelling. Known for his influential work with Ray Gun magazine, Ashworth's designs challenge conventional layouts, using fragmented text and dynamic visuals to convey emotion and energy.
DOROTTYA VÉKONY is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Budapest, Hungary. Her main field of interest keeps revisiting the theme of the body, whether it is our own or others’, or a collective body consciousness. The body images appearing in her works are primary reflections of our relation to the world, the environment and ourselves, forming a map that carries our history, the traces of our age and our personal stories.
NICHOLAS SULLIVAN (b. 1987) is a contemporary artist known for his dynamic, layered works that blend abstract and figurative elements. His art explores identity and memory, capturing fluidity and depth through vibrant color and texture. Sullivan’s work has been showcased internationally, establishing him as a rising figure in modern art.
VALERIA MANASARYAN is an artist and designer whose work combines intricate layering with bold visual narratives. Blending traditional and digital techniques, her pieces explore themes of identity, culture, and memory.
ANNE MISFELDT, a Danish collage artist and illustrator from Aarhus, blends her background in textile design with a passion for vintage materials. Known for her graphic, poetic style, she often uses family photos and antique books, creating collages with a nostalgic aesthetic.
Out and About
What to watch, read, and experience, as curated by the Collé team.
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Duane Toops Substack
Duane Toops’s newsletter dives deeply into creativity, introspection, and the nuances of human experience. In his latest piece, "Different Things," Toops explores the intricate layers of desire, emptiness, and the search for meaning.
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Artist Deborah Roberts Receives Mixed Ruling in Copyright Dispute
A federal judge ruled that some artworks by Lynthia Edwards bear enough similarity to Deborah Roberts's pieces for copyright claims to proceed, while dismissing others for lack of substantial similarity. This decision highlights the challenges of copyright in art, especially with overlapping styles and themes.
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Sometimes Good Weather Follows Bad People – Califone
This album is a haunting, atmospheric exploration of resilience and ruin, blending folk-rock sensibilities with an experimental edge. Califone’s soundscapes evoke a surreal Americana, capturing a world where beauty arises from desolation, and moments of clarity emerge through distortion.
