Corrugated plastic, ball chain, found photos, stainless steel hardware, on wood frame
40 x 32 in
The Inaugural Collé Prize: Recognizing Innovation in Collage
Collé was founded on the belief that collage is more than a medium—it is a philosophy, a way of working that reveals new possibilities by reimagining what already exists. The Collé Prize, an acquisition award presented by Collé, the curatorial platform of Pardon Collection, honors artists who expand the boundaries of collage, assemblage, and image-based practices. This prize reaffirms our commitment to supporting work that not only transforms materials but also rethinks how images structure meaning.
During Mexico City Art Week, in alignment with Feria Material’s spirit of cross-cultural exchange, we were proud to award the inaugural Collé Prize to Enrique Garcia. Selected for his conceptual rigor and technical precision, Garcia engages images and space with a sculptural sensibility, advancing the discourse of collage.
Enrique Garcia structures images into new systems with minimal intervention, resisting collage’s traditional qualities. His compositions heighten relationships between images and space, incorporating layered surfaces, transparent materials, and architectural elements. By refining his process to its essential elements, he creates a visual language where structure and surface, opacity and translucency, converge in subtle yet rigorous dialogues.
UV print on corrugated plastic, found photos, stainless steel hardware on oak frames
50 x 40 in
I feel a close proximity between my work and the combinatory logic of collage, it’s central to everything I do in the studio.
In some ways, I work against collage’s more traditional aspects. For example, I choose to work with whole images, never fragments or torn bits. My intervention is simply to gather and organize images, embedding them in new systems with minimal disruption to the individual parts. It’s like the difference between assembling a fruit salad versus blending all the ingredients into a smoothie.
UV prints on corrugated plastic, found photos, pins, and stainless steel hardware on oak frames
32 x 46.5 in
Part of putting an exhibition together for me means responding to the space as if it were a raw material, just like I respond to the images and objects that I find and incorporate into my work. I apply the same logic to installation as I would to a wall work: using connective elements and physical interruptions as a way to break up the space and frame specific views. In this way, the installation process is dynamic and unique each time.
This is why I think chasing ideas can be a hindrance. Dynamism comes from thinking on your feet and collaborating with what's already there, whether that be images, objects, or the architecture itself.
Found photos, corrugated plastic, stainless steel hardware, painted wood frame
24 x 96 in
There is an ascetic impulse in my practice to work with as few materials as possible. I am mostly working with corrugated plastic and ball chain, materials that I have chosen for their ability to gently delineate space, and their tendency to vibrate in response to our movement.
The linear subdivisions and translucency of the plastic are echoed by the evenly spaced spherical links in the ball chain, and in the rhythmic arrangements I create with it. But my choice in materials is not just formal… both materials are industrially produced and have a machinic, frictionless appearance, further amplifying themes I explore in my work through found imagery.
(Detail)
I spend a lot of time thinking about arrangement and order in my work. I will frequently use scale as a way to establish visual hierarchies that encourage (or disrupt) legibility. I find this axis between what can be registered and what is illegible exciting:
Can something be imposing but barely perceptible? Miniscule but catastrophic?
Found images, corrugated plastic, wood frame
27 ½ x 22 ½ in
Corrugated plastic, ball chain, found photos, stainless steel hardware
48 x 48 in
Mexico City, July 2024
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Enrique Garcia is an artist working across photography, sculpture, and installation. His work centers on the paradoxical relationship between creation and destruction, touching on history, colonialism, and the consequences of technology. His photo compositions combine scavenged and appropriated materials to create networks of symbols, recontextualized through scale and juxtaposition.
Through its varied references–from ancient ruins, celestial objects, to modern technology– his work elicits the sublime while provoking reflection on the meaning of human progress.
Garcia studied Sculpture at Pratt Institute. His work has been exhibited at SculptureCenter (NY), N.A.S.A.L. (MX), and Material Art Fair (MX). He lives and works between New York and Mexico City.
Out and About
What to watch, read, and experience, as curated by the Collé team.
▼ ATTEND
Jersey Art Book Fair Feb 21-23, 2025
Presented by Dense Magazine, and hosted by Monira Foundation and Mana Contemporary, Jersey Art Book Fair will feature 200 exhibitors, including publishing houses, artists, designers, collectives, and galleries.
▼ READ
The House Where 28,000 Records Burned – The Atlantic
Charlie Springer spent a lifetime building his music collection. The Los Angeles fires incinerated it.
▼ LISTEN
New York Grief – Princess Demeny
This album is a haunting meditation on loss, longing, and the spectral presence of the city itself. Demeny’s work unfolds like a fragmented love letter to New York.