the delayed association… (2020) the blurted confession… (2020) the cordial coercion… (2020) the thwarted perpetuity… (2020) the distant longing… (2020) the delightful deference… (2020) an overheard remark… (2018) spontaneous commotion… (2017) “well i declare, fig tree in the colonies” (2015) massing for dawn… (2016) the lurking sensibility spies a delicate perch… (2019) shifting the tide… (2014)
—click on any image to enlarge—
Artist’s Statement
My work on an individual piece usually begins after I’ve cut a hundred or more elements from culled images that have attracted my eye. Once a particular image appeals to me by virtue of its shape, color, texture, or even degree of decay, it may suggest an association that triggers some remote memory or fantasy of the future, alternative mythology, or dreamscape, and if possible a combination of all of those and more, which gets me started on the road to completing the piece. As I work, I continually discover new techniques and approaches to the creative process.
Frank Whipple is a collage artist and long-time dealer and collector of antique books and ephemera. His work has been featured on the set of “NCIS: Los Angeles,” as the cover art for the Max Laser Band’s 2017 CD “Beautiful Heartbreak,” and in the book for Cecil Touchon’s 2017 exhibition, “Dada Centennial: Day of the Dead.” Since 1995 his work has been included in group shows at the Louis Stern Gallery, Gallery 825, and the Zipper Gallery (all in West Hollywood), as well as the Fremont Center Theatre (Pasadena), the Spring Open Show of the Collage Artists of America (2006), the Space Gallery, the Lark Gallery (2014), the Sebastapol Center for the Arts (2016), the MorYork Gallery (Highland Park), the Sullivan Goss Gallery (Santa Barbara), the Nisa Touchon Gallery (Santa Fe, 2015 and 2016), and the Retroavangarda Gallery (Warsaw, forthcoming). Solo shows include “Papercuts,” at the Space Gallery in Claremont, California (2016) and “Scenic Roots…a Collage Dreamscape” and “Frank Whipple Collages” at the MorYork Gallery (2018 and 2019). He was a featured speaker for the Collage Artists of America in 2017.Find out more at frankwhipplecollage.