2022
Mac Premo’s work is a study in transformation, where everyday objects and images are disassembled and reimagined into striking new forms. Moving beyond nostalgia, his practice confronts the histories embedded in materials while opening up new possibilities. Through layered compositions and sculptural interventions, Premo compels us to reconsider what is often overlooked. While his January collage workshops at Atelier Jolie are fully booked, his show opening in February is a must-see for those in New York.
2022
For about a dozen years, I’ve had my studio in the Invisible Dog Art Center on Bergen St in Brooklyn. Sadly, the lease for the Invisible Dog will not be renewed this year, so Lucien Zayan, the founder and curator of the Invisible Dog, is losing the walls but keeping the spirit. One of his first projects off Bergen street is with Atelier Jolie on Great Jones in Manhattan. Lucien is working with them to help program and activate the space. Just last month, Lucien asked if I wanted to host a workshop there and I said hell yes. Then I had to figure out what to make it about.
This is how I decided to host a workshop about making collage:
Donald Trump got elected to the presidency of the United States of America. A second time. That next morning, I walked my eldest to the subway to head off to school. Reid doesn’t need accompaniment, it was more a walk of solidarity. My kids are trans, and the highest office in the land had just used this tiny population as the sharp edge of a cynical fulcrum upon which he leveraged public opinion based largely on falsities. It wasn’t a great day.
As I walked back, I mindlessly scrolled through instagram, I guess in a form or passive commiseration. And then I came across Bob Voigts’ post. Bob is a fellow collage artist, and though I have never met him in person, I have come to know Bob a little through this tremendous online collage community fostered by folks like you, Contemporary Collage Magazine, and The Weird Show. Bob posted a beautiful work, a resonant dance of mayhem and order, typical of his incredible practice. And on that day, this work just stopped me in my tracks. I remember feeling how beautiful it was, like in my gut. There is no definitive or obvious message to this work, so it wasn’t an overt subject matter that struck me; it was just fucking beautiful. I had no idea just how much I needed art and beauty that moment until I saw Bob’s work.
So I reached out to Bob and told him how impactful and necessary his work was to me that morning. And then what happened really galvanized something for me: Bob wrote me a note saying that he was thinking about me and my family that day. He reminded me to stay strong. He offered of himself, and reminded me that we need each other and our art to connect us.
So here’s how that informed my workshop: It all starts with art. Art comes first (shout out to Sam and Shaka). I saw Bob’s art, I was struck by its beauty, I reached out and he reciprocated with awareness and care. A simple shared piece of art facilitated meaningful connection.
And here’s how the workshop works: I’m opening up my archive of collage material. The first part of the workshop will be inviting guests to take any of the imagery they want, to find images and patterns and colors and surfaces that attract them and take what they want. From there we'll go through some basic practices on how to get a collage to lie nice and flat, and how to do a proper glue-up. I can’t really teach anyone how to collage. That’s kind of the beauty of the form: there are no ordained rules from an art elite. It's just rip shit up, glue shit down, seek beauty. But even with its lack of formal rule, there are craft considerations that can transform the experience. Most notably, paper collage (papier collé if you want to be fancy) tends to wrinkle and air bubbles when glue meets paper. That’s what I want to share, some braying and clamping techniques.
The last step will be to clamp the collage in between two pieces of wood, which means that the participants won’t get to walk away with their work (it has to dry while clamped). That’s where the idea of creating postcards really came from. Each participant will address the postcard before we start, and then once the glue dries, I’ll mail the postcards for them.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t delight a little in usurping art-market commodification, but I don’t really think the market forces will take note. I guess in that sense it’s the thought that counts. In practical terms I’m hoping that folks find enjoyment in giving physical form to care, that they create an original work with someone in mind, and then share that love. In that way, I guess I can call this a collaboration with the United States Postal Service.
We need to share, be it methodology or through the act of gifting, we need to give: give a shit, give art, give time.. And hopefully through that process, we share beauty. Which helps, even a little.The politics and world around us can conspire all they want, but beauty always gets off the matte.
2023
Atelier Jolie describes itself as a creative collective for self-expression. Angelina Jolie founded it at 57 Great Jones, Basquiats’ former studio. It’s open to the public, has a beautiful cafe and a front room that shows some clothing. I’m not sure if it’s for sale, and frankly I’m not sure exactly what this place is. But I don’t think they know completely, either, and I think that’s a good thing. I do know that while I’ve been here, I’ve seen sewing classes and visiting chef’s and group art shows and activist art here. And like all New York cafe’s, random people congregate and conduct work from their laptops while drinking coffee. Also, the exterior of the space’s identity as an ever-changing hub for street art expression remains not only unfettered, but encouraged.
When Lucien invited me to host a workshop at Atelier Jolie, in trademark form, he invited me to think how I might want to occupy the space in as broad terms as I like. That’s the thing about Lucien: he facilitates opportunities with strict aversion to confining possibilities. “Whatever the artist wants to” is a phrase he lives by. It’s kind of a magic trick, because most artists respond by expanding themselves as much as possible as opposed to getting away with as little as possible. Anarchy as incentive, I guess.
Just as I am offering up my paper collage material for anyone to use, I’ve also recontextualized a lot of my older works. By “recontextualized”, of course I mean ripped apart into hundreds of pieces. That detritus is now the material with which I’ll make “new” works. Collage as collage material. That’s the work I’ll be showing in February.
2023
2012
I think we’re at a point where we need to dismantle. I don’t think innovation is always the answer, because a lot of current innovation is merely marketing. It’s a lecture series celebrating philanthropic endeavors that solve market-driven problems created by pretty much everyone in the audience.
Look, I don’t know how to dismantle entire power structures or economic paradigms. But I do know how to recognize structures within my own tiny body of work, analyze them, dismantle and reconstruct using those materials. It's art as a proxy. Just as Bob Voigts’ piece reminded me of beauty, my process is an enactment of dis/remantling.
Regarding the reassembly of the “new” works: building anew– in art or nation states– will inevitably contain the DNA of the past. There is no starting over, no tabula rasa. The future has always been built with materials at hand. But simply building a better mousetrap isn’t good enough anymore. Innovation isn’t good enough anymore. We need to really rip shit apart. I’m not talking about rampant destruction– I’m neither that punk rock nor that January 6th. I’m talking about intentional radicalism, the realization that because we authored all these power structures, their resultant turmoil is on our byline as well. So the way forward is to disassemble, and the re-building materials we are left with, the ones worth keeping at all, may end up being just barely familiar. But they’ll be the ones with structural integrity. Fuck legacy, fuck the shareholders.
2013
2022
2023
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Mac Premo makes art, commercials and films. Born in Washington DC in 1973, Mac graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1995 and moved to New York that same year. His films and art have exhibited worldwide, including The Brooklyn Museum, the Ringling Museum, PS1 MoMA, The Invisible Dog Art Center and The New Museum. Mac has won 13 New York Emmy® Awards for his video and animation work, including awards for best commercial, photography, set design and best PSA. Sometimes he writes and performs one-man plays. Mac is a NYFA Fellow, a recent fellow of The New Institute in Hamburg, Germany, and lives in Brooklyn with his tremendous wife and two totally radical kids. And also their dog, Philomena.
For Your Viewing Pleasure
TÊTE AU CARRÉ is a Paris-based multidisciplinary artist exploring the interplay between geometry, structure, and fragmentation. Their work combines collage, sculpture, and digital media, reimagining found materials into striking compositions. With a focus on blending order and chaos, their pieces invite viewers to see the familiar through a reconstructed lens.
NORIKA NIENSTEDT (b. 1952, Güdingen/Saar) studied free painting at the Staedelschule Frankfurt/Main under Professor Johann-Georg Geiger from 1975 to 1979. Based in Düsseldorf since 1982, she has collaborated with Michael Jonas on improvised stuffed animal short films since 1997.
LEUCH ART is an Argentine artist known for bold, geometric designs that balance color, form, and space. Inspired by nature and architecture, their work invites both curiosity and reflection.
JASMINE LATKA'S collage and text-based works transform the mundane into sensual reflection. At its heart, her practice reclaims space for femininity and pleasure. Drawing inspiration from the liminal moments of the everyday, she weaves together fragments of found print ephemera to craft compositions that celebrate the unspoken yet deeply felt.
THERROR is a Mexico City-based collage artist known for his striking cut-and-torn paper compositions that transform public spaces into dynamic canvases. His street interventions blend bold imagery with the vibrancy of urban life, inviting viewers to experience art in unexpected ways.
Out and About
What to watch, read, and experience, as curated by the Collé team.
▼ READ
A Chilling Exhibition about the Nuclear Threat - by Aaron Peck
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, the threat of nuclear war seemed abstract. Recent geopolitical tensions, however, have reminded us that its reality remains contemporary. The Atomic Age, an exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, feels timed to explore the recrudescence of those anxieties.
▼ DONATE
A Running List of Resources to Help Artists Impacted by LA Fires
From fundraisers to mutual aid drives and emergency grants, there are many ways to find support and help those affected by the fires. List compiled by Hyperallergic.
▼ LISTEN
Love Exposure by Repeat Pattern
This album, featuring Ackryte and Broke, feels like a pure expression of love for the craft. The beats are jazz-infused, raw, and alive, but it’s the chemistry between the artists that makes it truly special. Nothing here feels forced, just a natural flow that celebrates the art of collaboration.
