The path that carried her from small cut pieces to global shows | Julia Kohane

This interview with Julia Kohane offers a close look at how her collage practice has evolved over the past year, during which her work was showcased in New York to London, Venice, and Rome. She speaks openly about what draws her toward moments where memory and imagination seem to meet, and how her pieces often unfold from small fragments that gradually find their place together on the table.

Julia discusses the combination of hand-cutting and digital finishing that keeps her process moving, explaining how one stage allows her to experiment and the other helps her fine-tune the atmosphere of a piece. She describes why she begins some works with a figure, others with a landscape or a feeling, and how the direction often shifts once the fragments start interacting.

She also shares what it has been like to see her collages presented in different cities and how the surroundings of each exhibition shaped the conversations people brought to the work. Some viewers were drawn to the emotional tension in her scenes, while others were captivated to the surreal qualities that ran through them.

By the end of the conversation, readers gain a clearer sense of how her background in psychology and philosophy still influences the way she selects and reshapes imagery, how she maintains the closeness of her small hand-cut pieces when they become large aluminium prints, and why the idea of time as something fluid continues to guide her practice.

Since 2024, my practice has explored the collapse of linear time and the delicate space between memory and imagination, shifting fluidly between past and future. I create surreal collages in which solitary figures inhabit fractured landscapes that open onto emotional terrains of alienation and renewal, mirroring the tension between external chaos and internal turmoil. My hybrid process integrates analogue and digital techniques: I edit found imagery, print and hand-cut fragments, assemble them physically, then scan and refine the compositions digitally.

Finalised as high-resolution Vibrachrome prints on aluminium, the works can expand in scale while preserving the intimacy of their hand-cut origins. Listed dimensions refer to the original hand-cut collage, with final print sizes adapted to each venue’s spatial or format requirements while preserving composition and detail. Through this process, I disrupt original meanings, construct new realms, and invite viewers to question what is real, what is remembered, and what is imagined.

1.   Your work plays with time in such an intriguing way, almost as if memory and imagination are happening at once. What drew you toward exploring time this way in the first place?    

I’ve always been fascinated by how memory reshapes time — how the past isn’t fixed but continually transforms the way we perceive the present and envision the future. In my work, these fragments often coexist, reflecting how our recollections are fluid, fragile, and continuously reshaped. Time, for me, is less a straight line than a shifting landscape where moments connect and echo.

2.   You move between scissors, paper, and digital editing in each piece. What is it about mixing physical collage with digital finishing that keeps this process exciting for you?  

The process stays exciting because the physical and digital stages complement each other, each offering new possibilities and different challenges. The physical part — cutting and assembling — gives me space to experiment, moving fragments around, testing different variations and sizes, and seeing how they interact — almost like working on a puzzle until the pieces fall into place. Then the digital stage lets me refine the image: I can clean up minor imperfections, like glue marks or uneven edges, adjust light, and make the colors more vibrant.

3.    The figures in your collages often seem caught between worlds or emotions. When you start a new piece, do you usually begin with a person, a landscape, or a feeling you want to follow?  

Sometimes my new pieces begin with a person or a creature; other times they grow from a landscape or an emotion. Once I begin assembling fragments, the relationships between them start to shift, and I find the composition taking shape through that process. I’m drawn to creating surreal worlds because they allow the imagination to go further — beyond what’s possible in everyday life. That space of possibility is what keeps me exploring, and it often leads to images that feel suspended between emotions and realities.

4.   This year has taken your work from New York to Venice, London, and Rome. Has seeing your work in such different settings changed how you think about the conversations viewers bring to it?  

Seeing my work in person across several of the cities where it was exhibited — including beautiful places like Venice and Milan — was an exceptional experience. I’m excited that galleries outside the U.S. are interested in presenting my work. In some areas, the emotional side seemed to resonate more with viewers, while in others, it was the surreal or symbolic aspects that took hold. It’s made me more aware of how much context shapes the way people connect with the work.

5. You studied psychology and philosophy before focusing on college. How do those fields show up in the way you choose and reshape imagery?  

My background in psychology and philosophy shapes how I approach imagery. Psychology sparked my curiosity about how people perceive and remember experiences — how we form meaning from fragments. Philosophy, rooted in questioning, continues to influence my work and pushes me to explore what is real, remembered, or imagined. That sense of uncertainty runs through my collages, keeping me drawn to images that feel open-ended and ambiguous, where different interpretations can coexist.

6.   Your pieces begin as small, hand-cut works and then become larger aluminium prints for exhibitions. How do you keep the closeness of the original collage alive when the work grows in scale?  

When the collages are printed at a larger scale, they still retain the intimacy of the original hand-cut pieces. That sense of closeness comes from the details — the minor cuts, edges, and textures that remain visible in the final print. The high-resolution scans capture every trace of the collage, preserving its tactile quality as it expands in size. At the same time, I believe the larger format makes the pieces feel more powerful and immersive. The gloss Vibrachrome finish enhances that effect, intensifying the already saturated colors and adding another level of vibrancy to the images.

Julia Kohane’s work revolves around the shifting nature of time and the way memory continually reshapes the stories we tell ourselves. Through small hand-cut collages that grow into larger pieces, she follows fragments as they lean toward each other, forming scenes that hover between uncertainty, tension, and possibility.

Her journey across exhibitions this year demonstrates how different settings can alter the way people interpret those scenes, and how viewers bring their own associations to each encounter. What we learn from her process is that her pieces do not seek fixed answers. They open a space where imagination and recollection mingle, where figures drift between states, and where the past and future seem to meet for a moment before moving again.

To learn more about Julia, visit the links below.

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