SfCollageCollective’s Weblog

The collective was formed in 2006 when Matt Gonzalez, Robin Savinar and Albert Herter began making art together. It is a loose-knit group of artists from a variety of disciplines and varying degrees of formal art training, who occasionally gather together to make collage and montage works. The primary idea is to democratize art by inviting anyone to participate.

Although as many as 40 artists have worked with the collective at some point, those who contributed works to the group’s first show were: Aimee Friberg, Albert Herter, Bernice Yeung, David Sloane, Esteban Ortega Brown, Francis Mill, Javier Arbona, Jim Dorenkott, Matt Gonzalez, Matt Springman, Matt Sullivan, Rob Reger, Robin Savinar, and Stephanie Brown.

The Collage Collective’s first show Before My Rushing Heart — New Works by the San Francisco Collage Collective opened at the ArtHouse in McAllen, Texas (Mayra Brown, gallery director). It ran from February through April 2008 and was favorably reviewed by Nancy Moyer in The Monitor on March 7, 2008

Javier Arbona

The McAllen ArtHouse show travelled to Saltillo, Mexico where it was shown at the Coahuila state capitol, opening October 7, 2008. The show Collages de San Francisco, Cal., USA was organized by Inez de Leon and was favorably reviewed in El Diario de Coahuila and El Universal in Mexico City.

The Collage Collective’s third show Defiant Optimism was curated by Aimee Friberg and opened at Gallery Extraña in Berkeley, California on November 7, 2008. Artist showing with the collective for the first time included Lawrence Jordan, Winston Smith, Richard Stutting and Rance Brown.

Three early silent films by Larry Jordan were screened at the opening with piano accompaniment by Rob Reger.

Aimee Friberg, David Sloane and Rob Reger

The Collage Collective’s fourth show I Said It with a Brick opened at Kaleidoscope in San Francisco, California on December 3, 2009. Artist showing with the collective for the first time included Theophilus Brown, Glenna Putt, Felix Macnee, Meredith Davies, Jason West, Rachel Hoiem, Charles Gonzalez, Stacy Bellew, Ben Andrews, Lizzy Coon, Ron Stutz and Marja Heppener.