Alexis Anne Mackenzie’s handcut collages of found images and pages from vintage books in her latest body of work. By taking pictures like scenic backdrops and splitting them with photos of women and other figures, Mackenzie creates stirring, moody works on paper. The work can be at once empowering and seemingly treacherous for those depicted. Works like “Closer to the Sun,” above, combine like objects, creates a synthesis between the beauty of flight and womanhood. The body of work is part of the show “Never Odd or Even” at Eleanor Harwood Gallery in San Francisco.
Mackenzie is an Ann Arbor, Mich., native who currently lives in Scotland, where she creates her collages. She describes her process as beginning with an idea and a “series of trials and errors, subtle maneuvers, selection/elimination, harmonious unions, and happy accidents.”
Her intentions—and the unpredictable nature of her work—was described in a past statement: “It is a meditative process, and there is a lot of decision-making behind each element involved. My general intent, throughout all my work, is to portray the world as a flawed thing of beauty–a place that shines brightly, but has a dark side to match.”
Memphis based artist Josh Breeden, who goes by the moniker 
Armed with two centuries of source material and an X-ACTO knife, Michael Tunk's "Analog Collage" series offers strange, absorbing worlds and portraits. In his "The Unknown Rider" series, seen below, he offers ghostly depictions of the Old West. Elsewhere, he uses unexpected building blocks in his portraits—such as tiny versions of the creature he’s depicting.
Armed with a pair of scissors, Huntz Liu's multilayered paper collages have the viewer guessing which geometric forms offer actual depth or just give the illusion of it. With names like "Color Chasm," "Gravity," and "Boxy Configurations," the artist acknowledges that playful deception that carries across the works in his new show at Thinkspace Projects, which runs through Oct. 5 at the space.
Collage artist