ARTIST STATEMENT
My collage practice is rooted in a keen interest in art history and in the visual culture that surrounds
us. I am particularly interested in the lineage of women who have shaped modern art—as artists,
patrons, collectors and cultural figures—and in the role women have played in the development of
collage itself.
Collage allows me to assemble my own view of the world. I work with images drawn from art,
photography, architecture, fashion and contemporary culture, taking them out of their original
contexts and repositioning them to create unexpected relationships. Through changes in scale,
placement and juxtaposition, familiar images can acquire new meanings and invite a different way
of seeing.
Paper is central to this process. I am drawn to its tactile and expressive qualities—its texture,
translucency, pattern, fragility and colour—and to the physical acts of cutting, layering and
assembling. There is an element of discovery in allowing disparate fragments to interact and seeing
what emerges.
Much of my recent figurative work revisits women and imagery from art history through a
contemporary lens. Rather than retelling their histories, I am interested in creating new visual
conversations around them—bringing fragments of existing worlds together to imagine something
of my own.
ARTIST BIO
Elaine Pantel is a Toronto-based collage artist whose work draws on art history, architecture, design
and contemporary visual culture. Working primarily with paper and printed materials, she creates
layered compositions that reinterpret familiar images and explore new relationships through
juxtaposition, scale and context.
Her practice moves between figurative and abstract work, with a particular interest in visual references
that resonate across time and place. Through cutting, layering and re-composition, existing images are
transformed into new conversations.