5 Artists Who Proved Collage Is More Than Cut and Paste

What happens when you take pieces that don’t belong together and give them a new home? That’s the magic of collage art. It begins with fragments of bits of paper, photographs, fabric, or even paint and turns them into something entirely new. Collage artists are explorers of possibility, gathering what is forgotten, cut away, or left behind and breathing new life into it. A ripped page can tell a story, an unexpected overlap can create tension, and a sudden splash of colour can change how we feel.

Collage isn’t just about what’s glued to the page, it’s about the spaces between the layers, the surprise of what happens when two images meet, and the stories that appear when nothing is left out. Every tear, every cut, every layer is intentional, even when it feels spontaneous. Collage artists invite us to look closer, to slow down, and to find beauty in what we might have thrown away.

At Arts to Hearts Project, we believe collage is a celebration of curiosity and reinvention. This week, we turn our attention to the artists who remind us that broken pieces can become something whole, that scraps can become poetry, and that creativity is often found in the unexpected.

Niko Vartiainen @_nikovartiainen

In the quiet spaces between paper and silence, Niko Vartiainen brings together fragments of the world vintage prints, plants, bits of buildings, and traces of human life into collages that feel like gentle stories. Based in Turku, Finland, Niko works with both traditional and mixed media, creating art that is thoughtful, curious, and quietly alive. He collects images, cutouts, old posters, textures, and glimpses of landscapes not just to stick them together, but to let them talk to each other. Every collage carries a balance between what we see and what we remember: a building half-built, a face half-hidden, a curve that feels familiar yet strange. His work invites us to slow down, notice the small details, and feel the subtle rhythms hidden in the everyday.

At first glance, his collages may seem playful: a bird in a broken frame, a flower floating beside a black-and-white portrait, a geometric cut interrupting a peaceful scene, but each choice is intentional. Niko’s art feels like visual poetry, with shapes, layers, and unexpected moments that breathe. It doesn’t shout; it whispers, asking viewers to pause, look closer, and feel. Niko wears two hats: artist and curator. He runs the art journal Toombes and the collage zine Cults of Life, connecting artists from around the world. In doing so, he not only makes his own work but also creates space for conversation, showing how memory, form, and visuals can speak to one another. His ongoing series MASKS pares down to portraits that carry traces of emotion, torn edges, hidden figures, subtle color shifts revealing a quiet, uncanny beauty. Seeing a Niko Vartiainen collage feels like stepping into a half-remembered dream. Through cuts, overlaps, and layers, his pieces hold a delicate, human story, inviting us to lean in, notice, and feel.

Norika Nienstedt @norikanienstedt

When fragments of time collide, Norika Nienstedt gives them new life. Born from the impulse to revisit, rearrange, and reimagine, Norika’s collages reveal stories in the in-between spaces: torn paper, painted overprints, and layered textures that speak of memory, chance, and reinvention. Her work often flirts with the boundary between abstraction and narrative. You might see a face emerging from torn edges, or a landscape formed by overlapping negative space. Norika’s layering is never random; each piece is a conversation between what is seen and what is implied. 

She balances control and spontaneity, building visual rhythms where “mistakes” become voices, and gaps become open invitations. Norika’s process is one of searching, arranging, and re-arranging until every element finds its place. Her collages are meditations on presence and absence, on what is kept and what is left behind. Through her collages, Norika asks: What do we salvage? What do we let go? What does it mean to reconstruct? In bridging fragments past and present, her art invites us to see that even broken, disparate pieces can cohere into something resonant, poetic, and alive.

Kira E Wong @kiraewong_art

In a world awash with images, Kira E. Wong rescues the whisper of what once was vintage ads, forgotten magazines, and halftone prints and reassembles them into something new, alive, and charged with meaning. Based in Hoboken, New Jersey, Kira is not only a practicing architect but also a collage artist whose work bridges structure and imagination. By day, she designs buildings; by night, she returns to her studio, where stacks of decades-old magazines become the raw material for visual storytelling.

Each collage is a careful balance of precision and play. Kira handles fragile pages from the 1930s to 1960s with patience, cutting and arranging them by hand to preserve their texture and history. She layers images, text, and negative space until they reveal new narrative  ones that question, reinterpret, and even subvert the cultural messages of their original time. Her collages are not just assembled; they are orchestrated, creating conversations between past and present, between what was said and what was left unsaid. Through her work, Kira invites us to look closer  to notice the tension between what we remember and what we’ve forgotten, between nostalgia and critique. Her collages are both architectural and poetic, showing that fragments can be more than remnants; they can be the building blocks of entirely new worlds.

Marieke V @collagesdemarie

In the archive of images, notes, and postcards we often pass by, Marieke known as collagesdemarie sees possibility. Based in the Netherlands, she gathers vintage photography, flowers, birds, silhouettes, and fragments of nature, weaving them into digital collages that feel like daydreams made visible. What might seem playful or decorative at first glance reveals layers of tenderness, humour, and quiet wonder. Her process is intuitive yet precise. Each curve, faded shade, or fragment of texture is chosen for the mood it evokes. By working digitally, she can experiment endlessly shifting, erasing, and reimagining until balance emerges.

In her compositions, flowers bloom beside elegant silhouettes, animals appear in unexpected places, and subtle palettes lend a soft rhythm. These gentle surprises a shift in scale, an unusual pairing, a delicate overlap bring both playfulness and poignancy. Marieke doesn’t crowd her collages; she lets them breathe. There is a lyrical restraint in her approach, where rhythm, space, and silence hold as much weight as image. Her work doesn’t shout; it whispers, inviting us to slow down and notice the small enchantments tucked inside overlooked fragments. The result is a series of poetic visual escapes part memory, part imagination that remind us how even the quietest details can form songs of colour and delight.

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Marie Laforge @marielaforge.collage

In the delicate dialogue between image and memory, Marie Laforge assembles fragments into quiet revelations. She gathers old photographs, botanical ephemera, delicate textures, and unexpected snippets and weaves them into compositions that feel like soft, echoing dreams. In her collages, the past is not overwritten but whispered anew, as though every piece asks: “What happens if we let them meet again?” Based in France, Marie shapes a visual language guided by restraint, balance, and poetic connection. She often blends natural motifs, leaves, petals, branches with human forms or abstract shapes, letting one bleed into the other. The effect is subtle, lyrical, and contemplative.

Her process is attuned to silence and decision. She chooses not to overload but to let space breathe. A single cut, a chosen fragment, an overlay each gesture matters. Over time, layers accumulate, and the image gently resolves: not a loud declaration, but a moment of quiet recognition. Because she works with found images and delicate materials, there is always a tension between fragility and strength in her work. The torn edge, the faded tone, the translucent overlay they all carry memory, age, and presence. And yet, through her hands, they become renewed, reimagined, alive. Marie’s collages are invitations to slow down, to dwell in nuance, to listen to what lies between what we see and what we feel. In her art, fragments do not just remain fragments; they converse, overlap, and transform. And through them, we sense the soft persistence of memory, the poetry of restraint, and the quiet beauty of connection.

Collage is not just paper and glue; it is disruption made beautiful, a playground where fragments collide and spark new meaning. These artists show us that edges don’t need to be neat, that layers don’t need to match, and that chaos can be a story in itself. Every torn page, every overlapping image, and every unexpected juxtaposition is a chance to see the ordinary in extraordinary ways.

At the Arts to Hearts Project, we celebrate collage artists who dare to experiment, to break rules, and to turn what’s overlooked into something unforgettable. Their work reminds us that creativity thrives in tension, in contrast, and in fragments that refuse to fit together perfectly. Collage teaches us that the unexpected can be powerful, that what seems random can be deliberate, and that beauty often emerges from daring to combine what doesn’t belong.

If you are fascinated by the rebellious, transformative energy of collage, explore the work of these remarkable artists and let their creations challenge your perception, ignite your imagination, and fill your world with bold color, unexpected layers, and stories that refuse to stay in one place.