Visual historian and author Lucy Sante has opened two simultaneous exhibitions of her collage artwork in New York. The shows, at Karma gallery and the Center for Book Arts, feature work created from a vast personal archive of materials she has collected over decades, which she meticulously cuts and reassembles.
This marks a significant public debut of Sante's visual art practice, distinct from her celebrated literary career. The exhibitions highlight collage as a transformative and sometimes violent creative process, echoing her observation that 'you have to kill one thing to make another,' and offer insight into how her archival instincts as a writer manifest visually.