Caroline Golden
Caroline Golden · Source: New York Artists Circle · Rights retained by the original rights holders
- Medium
- Acrylic Paint, Found Objects, Paper, Recycled
- Based in
- New York City
- Practice
- Collage, Mixed Media, Works on Paper
Caroline Golden is a collage artist based in New York City. After graduating from college, she worked as a paste-up and mechanical artist, graphic artist, and art director for publishing houses and ad agencies. In 1996, … Full biography
Biography
Caroline Golden is a collage artist based in New York City. After graduating from college, she worked as a paste-up and mechanical artist, graphic artist, and art director for publishing houses and ad agencies. In 1996, realizing that she could combine these technical skills with her artistic vision, Golden made the leap and became a full-time fine artist.
Her studio is a hub for her artistic expression, housing an expanding collection of found imagery and objects that serve as the raw materials for her creations. Golden's collages traverse a spectrum from whimsical to disquieting, always prompting contemplation. She delves into hidden realms, unveils inner truths, and probes the interplay between reality and fantasy.
Golden's artwork has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions and resides in private and corporate collections worldwide. In 2020, her art served as the inspiration for writer Derek Owens, who crafted companion pieces for her series "The Villagers." This collaboration culminated in an award-winning book of the same title, published by Animal Heart Press in February 2022. In the summer of 2023, she was awarded a residency at Baer Art Center in Iceland.
Artist statement
As a collage artist, I search out images laced with memory and shadow using sources such as antique books, magazines, and vintage ephemera. I aspire to create the enchanted elsewhere, a place of both recollection and possibility. These surreal worlds exist in a realm neither here nor there, yet they appear oddly familiar as the steppingstones to enter our beloved fairytales. Through my art, I explore these familiar narratives and reinterpret them through an intimate and personal lens.
As a child, I was captivated by paper dolls, pop-up books, and paper models of any form. With a simple and well-placed fold, an inserted tab, some glue, and a sharp scissor – magic could be made. My studio is home to countless drawers of images and as yet unexplored magazines and discarded books collected over decades. These disparate images and sources are my palettes.
Still intrigued and challenged by the transformative aspects of paper, I meticulously hand-cut these found images, precisely layering and often lifting them off the flat paper surface to create narratives and miniature stages of illusion. Playing with the dimensionality of space I invite the viewer to step into my paper worlds and explore this sleight of hand.
