Presentation: Frankenstein in Collage Illustration

Explore how contemporary artists use collage illustration to bring fresh perspectives to public domain texts.

Learn about the  creative process behind Kolaj Institute’s project, which pairs vintage public domain stories with collaborative collage illustrations. The project explores how artists use modern techniques to bring new perspectives to classic works like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, addressing contemporary themes such as artificial intelligence, identity, and modern relationships.

Artist will share their experiences working on these reimagined pieces and discuss how collage as an art form can highlight timeless ideas while making them relevant for today's audience.

Artists:

Suzanne Greenberg creates mixed media collage, painting and film rooted in desire, loss and everyday life. She embraces hand-made imperfection, transforming found materials into vivid depictions of sensuality and pain. Based in New York City, she began collage in 2015 at the 92nd Street YMCA and has never exhibited or published her work. She holds a BA in dance from Evergreen State College and lived in Maui from 1989 to 2014, an experience that deeply influences her art.

Connect: Suzanne Greenberg - Instagram 

Marta Janik is a collage artist working in analog, digital and animation. Based in Warsaw, she previously lived in Berlin, where she guided at the Salvador Dalí Museum. She studied literature and computer graphics and is drawn to surrealism, kitsch and circus imagery.

Janik created a collage-animated music video for Polish icon Alicja Majewska, commissioned by Sony Music Entertainment Poland. She runs collage workshops, collaborates with the Museum of Caricature and won the 2020 Warsaw Cultural Education Award. Her work has been exhibited in the USA, Ireland, Germany, Italy and Slovenia.

Connect: Marta Janik - Website | Marta Janik - Instagram 

David Edward Johnson is a mixed media artist working in Austin, Texas and the Finger Lakes region of New York. His work explores belief systems, the rise and fall of the American Dream, desire, identity and loss. Blending organic, geometric, iconic and abstract elements, he creates large-scale assemblages that defy classification.

Johnson describes his work as abstraction, definition and deconstruction. His pieces have appeared in juried shows across the U.S., The Other Art Fair, and selected galleries. His art has been featured on Andy Grammer’s album covers, in the Saatchi Art catalog and at the London Art Biennale.

Connect: David Edward Johnson - Website | David Edward Johnson - Instagram 

Anthony D. Kelly is an illustrator, writer, visual artist and psychotherapist based in Castlebar, Ireland. Using collage, poetry and assemblage, he creates work that is hopeful, satirical and occasionally unnerving.

A former curator at Cork’s Basement Project Space, Kelly was Kolaj Magazine’s World Collage Day Artist in 2023. He has exhibited internationally, with work in the collections of Mayo County Council, Kolaj Institute and The Henry Sheldon Museum. His art appears in Kolaj Magazine, Art Reveal and more.

Kelly explores the arts as a tool for social engagement, the interplay of literature and visual art and the role of wonder in mental health.

Connect: Anthony D. Kelly - Website | Anthony D. Kelly - Instagram 

Maureen Letton is a collage artist based in San Francisco, influenced by cartoons, her mother’s film industry work, and a love for the random and unusual. After a career in pre-press and raising twin daughters, she returned to art during the pandemic, focusing on found objects and signs from deserted streets.

Letton works with a hybrid analog/digital approach, creating and manipulating images to find narratives within chaos. She draws inspiration from artists like Roy De Forest, Leonora Carrington, and the Surrealists. Since her first gallery show in 2022, Letton has exhibited in several Bay Area collage shows and contributed to projects like The Polaroids Collage Club and Semioculus Magazine.

Connect: Maureen Letton - Instagram 

Anissa Malady is a collage artist, book destroyer and librarian whose work explores art, literature and human expression. Living in San Francisco, she draws inspiration from the city’s street art scene. Her collages blend found imagery and fragmented text to explore politics, activism, sensuality, desire and human connection. Her work has been exhibited at the Center for Sex and Culture, San Francisco Public Library and Gallery-a-Rama.

Connect: Anissa Malady - Website | Anissa Malady - Instagram 

Rebecca Steiner holds degrees in art history from Indiana University and UCLA. Her professional experience includes roles at the Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Alice Adam Ltd, UCLA Grunwald Center, Los Angeles County Art Museum and Getty Research Institute. She also created and operated “The Average Joe Photo Show,” an independent crowd-sourced photo project.

Steiner’s collages, using images from periodicals and found ephemera, explore themes like gender, identity, domesticity, nostalgia, consumerism and mass consumption. Her whimsical juxtapositions and surreal settings address the construction of social roles and stereotypes, inviting viewers to reflect on beauty, desire, privilege and the nature of identity. Since participating in the Kasini House Curating Collage Workshop in 2020, her evolving artistic strategies have been showcased in Kolaj Magazine and exhibited at MAPSpace, Chester Gallery, the Bristol Art Museum and the Florence Griswold Museum.

Connect: Rebecca Steiner - Instagram

Jessica TranVo is an artist who works in collages and mixed media. She graduated from BSU’14 as a double major with Bachelor’s degrees in Fine Arts, English Literature (with a focus on Irish Literature), and a minor in Art History. Her background is in acrylic and oil painting on canvas and mixed media. She collages digitally or on paper with found images and incorporates elements of painting. Escapism and anxiety run undercurrent through her surrealist collages: dreamscapes, the elements of nature and flowers, and women reclaiming nature, space, desserts, etc. Her work plays in the liminal space of diaspora and postmodernism. She is a queer, mixed Vietnamese American artist who works full-time at MIT’s Literature Section, frequently researching visual representation for their literary and academic community.

Connect: Jessica TranVo - Website | Jessica TranVo - Instagram