Untitled 1998

Here is Rosemary Karuga’s collage work, made from found paper. I love how each element is carefully considered and placed with a clear vision. Looking at the texture and color, you can see it's all built from snippets, a mosaic of the world's discarded ephemera. See how the figure is pieced together from bits of magazines and maps, forming a striking whole? It’s a process, an act of patiently building something substantial from scraps. Focus on the hands holding the tool. Karuga uses small, vertical cuts of paper to imply the power and direction of this man at work. This is something that makes this piece feel vital, like a real observation of an ordinary scene. Karuga reminds me a little of Hannah Hoch, another artist who used collage to disrupt conventional images. But Karuga is doing something unique, transforming throwaway materials into something both ordinary and magical. It’s a beautiful example of how art finds beauty in the unexpected.