Cassia Beck
artwork
under $250
Cassia Beck is a contemporary artist currently living in Brighton, UK. Beck completed a degree in Workshop Ceramics from the University of Westminster, Harrow, but found her chosen medium in collage. Her work has been exhibited in her native London and Brighton, UK, and graces the walls of hotels and restaurants around the world. Beck’s art can be found on numerous book covers, has been featured in various publications, including Flow and Frankie magazine, and has been licensed by global brands like IKEA and Urban Outfitters.
Her collage work is all made by hand. It is playful with a splash of humor and satisfies her desire to scavenge in junk shops and car boot sales for interesting paper finds.
She is inspired by mid-century advertising and likes to mix the old with the new. Bold, colorful shapes combined with black-and-white images or people or objects placed in unusual settings have become her signature style.
“I am a paper collage artist using a mix of found and vintage papers. I hand cut my elements, using them to tell a new story. Colourful shapes create movement and direction, whether I am creating portraits or abstract pieces.
I am drawn to damaged paper with stains, rips and hand writing from the past. These marks often dictate my compositions.
My collage history goes much further back than I realised. During my A Levels, I chose to study the magnificent Peter Blake and created a series of mixed media pieces using collage and paint. I wrote him a letter and he replied! Further back as a child, I enjoyed destoying books and creating new outfits and make up for the characters. Later, letters to friends involved collaging the envelopes and finding more inventive ways of posting the notes, like old cigarette boxes with images glued to them to amuse the postman.
I was nudged in the direction of ceramics because I was good at it so I chose to do my degree in workshop ceramics but my heart wasn’t in it. I was making collages in my room in my spare time.
Having my children allowed me space to explore what I really wanted to do and collage made it’s way back between naps.” - C.B.