Black swan (created for LULA Japan to the theme YELLOW)

Dutch Nicola Kloosterman works in analog collage media, building striking, layered images with found photographs, textiles, and magazine advertisements. Much of the artist’s work concerns concepts of femininity and perception. 

Untitled (from series Shadow Play)

I really enjoy the “less is more” approach that the artist takes toward collage art, like in Kloosterman’s series Shadow Play. In these works, the artist takes advantage of the materials left over after other images have been cut away from photos or magazine pages. A sparse few leaves where a full flowering plant once was, for example. Using images on monochromatic, negative-space backgrounds, the artist simultaneously creates a new presence for the cut away object, and demonstrates how much of it is missing. 

The artist’s newest works utilize often stereotypical markers of femininity -- flowers, pink textiles, disjointed female body parts -- to build uncanny images that suggest form without ever showing it fully.

FOLD (Collage for LULA Japan May issue YELLOW)