A new collage exhibition exploring resistance, isolation and identity opens Friday evening at Hopkins Hall Gallery on Ohio State University's campus, with a DJ set, a poet and a room full of scrap paper waiting for visitors to tear into. Pulp Stiction: Collage as an Act of Resistance runs from Oct. 26 through Dec. 11, drawing more than 70 artists whose work was culled from over 300 submissions.
The show was curated by Emily Morgan, president and founder of the Columbus Collage Collective, in partnership with Urban Arts Space, the public arts gallery operated by Ohio State, according to WOSU Public Media. Morgan, who also runs the studio Lovely But Dead, rewrote her original gallery proposal after Donald Trump was re-elected, the station reports, shaping the exhibition around themes of loneliness, chronic illness and politics. She has said art helped her process fear and feeling lost, and that the show represents breaking free from oppression, fear and anxiety.
A National Call Answered From Six Countries
The exhibition is a national juried show, and its reach extends well beyond central Ohio. It includes international artists from the UK, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Indonesia and Gaza, per WOSU's reporting, alongside local, national and international submissions described by Urban Arts Space. Exactly how many finished pieces made the cut is described differently across organizers' own accounts: the Columbus Collage Collective says 73 works are on display in the gallery with 19 more in a digital exhibition, Lovely But Dead describes 91 total collage works, and Matter News reports nearly 70 collages representing 26 states and seven countries in its own account of the show.
Among the local contributors is Lynda McClanahan, a Columbus-area artist and musician whose piece Mother incorporates old Hindu calendars and Asian advertisements to connect resistance to motherhood, according to WOSU. McClanahan has said motherhood is part of her identity but does not comprise all of her personhood. The exhibition also includes a video collage by Los Angeles artist Mina Gudis, which Lovely But Dead describes as an interactive co-destruction room centered on a piece called Atmosphere.
A Room Built for Tearing Things Apart
Morgan has designed the show to be hands-on rather than hands-off. A room holding a large pile of scrap paper lets visitors create their own collages in what Morgan calls a co-destruction space, per WOSU's account, and the exhibition also features a collective collage that stays available for the full run of the show, according to Lovely But Dead. Morgan has said making art socially can encourage people to seek out art in their own lives, framing collage itself as a social response to loneliness.
That participatory spirit carries into Friday's opening reception at 5 p.m., which WOSU reports will include a DJ set and guest speakers. Lovely But Dead names the performers as DJ LaChewLa, host of Peaks and Valleys on 91.9 WGRN Columbus, and poet Mandy Shunnarah. The opening party is free with an RSVP requested, and it includes its own scrap room for making a collage on the spot, according to Columbus Navigator.
Paying Artists After a Grant Fell Through
Behind the scenes, the exhibition almost lost its funding entirely. Urban Arts Space's account of the project notes that in mid-2025, Morgan learned the major project grant she had planned to use to fund the exhibition would no longer be available, prompting her to launch a fundraiser aimed at keeping the show accessible while making sure artists and collaborators are paid fairly. WOSU reports Morgan set a fundraising goal of $10,000 and had raised $3,500 toward it; Morgan and Urban Arts Space provided each exhibiting artist with a stipend that also covered postage costs for work shipped from across the country and overseas.
The Columbus Collage Collective, which the station's reporting ties to Morgan's broader curatorial work, was founded in 2023 as a community organization built around accessible art, and the Collective describes collage itself as an art form rooted in disruption that resists singular narratives. Morgan has echoed that framing in broader terms, telling Matter News, “I think collage can be whatever you want it to be. It wraps its arms around everything that sort of sits outside of traditional art.” That outlet's coverage notes submissions in the show address caregiver fatigue, pandemic-era isolation, chronic illness and the struggles of closeted queer youth.
What Comes After the Opening
The show's run includes two more scheduled gatherings beyond Friday's opening. WOSU reports a first collaborative collage party is set for Nov. 18, with a closing event and second collage party planned for Dec. 11, the exhibition's final day. Hopkins Hall Gallery, located at 128 N Oval Mall on Ohio State's main campus, keeps regular hours Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to Lovely But Dead, which also notes that collages on view are available for purchase with no commission taken, meaning all proceeds go directly to the artists.
The title itself nods to physics as much as politics. WOSU reports that Pulp Stiction refers to the force needed to break friction between objects, a fitting name for a show Morgan has described as holding personal and visible stories that still manage to incorporate hope.
