Strange Glue - Traditional & Avant-garde Collage - Collage at 100

Thompson Gallery at The Cambridge School of Weston
(781) 398-8316 or (781) 642-8608
thompsongallery@csw.org

NEWS RELEASE

WESTON, Mass. – The Thompson Gallery at The Cambridge School of
Weston is pleased to present “Collage at 100,” a three-part exhibition series
that celebrates the centennial of the appearance of collage in painting.

The three-part exhibition will run from Sept. 7, 2012 through June 16th,
2013, and will highlight work from over 100 artists, including celebrated
contemporary collage practitioner Michael Oatman, in the final exhibition of
the series. “Collage at 100” will be unveiled with an opening reception with
the artists on Friday, Sept. 7, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Thompson
Gallery.

“There have only been a handful of exhibits that have celebrated collage's
centennial,” said Todd Bartel, Thompson Gallery Director. “We received over
500 applications for this show, and I reviewed over 3500 works of art. This
exhibition is sure to be one of our most popular and densely concentrated
shows. It is thrilling for our teaching gallery to take the pulse of
contemporary collage after its inception 100 years ago.”

“Strange Glue—Traditional & Avant-Garde Collage,” the first show in the
series, assembles the work of more than 100 contemporary artists as it
traces the transition from traditional to avant-garde approaches to papier
collé. The first show will run from Sept. 7 through Nov. 20, 2012.

The second part, “Strange Glue, Collage & Installation,” will showcase
contemporary collage strategies that either border upon or require overt
installation tactics. It will examine the work of 24 contemporary artists as it
demonstrates the connections between the flatness of collage and the
physicality of installation. The second show will launch with an artist’s
reception on Dec. 19, running through Feb. 22, 2013.

Michael Oatman’s “Another Fine Mess,” the final show in the exhibition,
assembles the work taken from his days as an emerging artist at the Rhode
Island School of Design in the 1980’s through to his monumental “maximum
collages,” a term he coined to refer to his installations, including work made
specifically for “Another Fine Mess.”