Eugenia Loli creates surrealist collages from vintage magazines. Her work blends nostalgia with psychedelia in a retro-futurist space-age epoxy that rivals the Dadaist collage masters.
Discover more work by Eugenia Loli
Collage artist Eugenia Loli uses photography scanned from vintage magazines and science publications to create bizarre visual narratives that borrow from aspects of pop art, dada, and traditional surrealism. Loli’s background is almost as diverse as the imagery she employs, having been born in Greece and living in Germany and the UK before settling in California. She previously worked as a nurse, a computer programmer, and as a technology journalist, but has only recently found a calling in collage work with publication in numerous magazines since 2013.
About Eugenia Loli
Q: Who the heck are you?
A: I’m Eugenia. I grew up in Greece, but I’ve also lived in Germany and UK. These days I live in California. I’ve been a (terrible) nurse, a computer programmer, a (rather successful) technology journalist, and a filmmaker. In April 2012, after I had just finished an animated music video, I decided to try collaging after the knowledge I gathered from making the animation. I got hooked ever since! Here is a short list of my publications so far.
Some random tidbits: I love sci-fi and sushi. I’m a major geek. I’m a (gluten-free) Paleo dieter for life, since I credit it for saving it after 10 years of major health problems. Finally, I’m an INFP.
Q: Do you have an artist’s statement?
A: “Eugenia Loli originated in the technology sector, but she left that impersonal world behind in order to build new, exciting worlds via her art. Her collages, with the help of the title, often include a teasing, visual narrative, as if they’re a still frame of a surreal movie. The viewers are invited to make up the movie’s plot in their mind.”
Q: How do you make your collages?
A: I start by finding a “base” image, and then I sort of build around it. Sometimes I have a concrete idea of what I want to do, and sometimes I leave the images to fit together by themselves. Sometimes, after a lot of juxtaposing, the “base” image might not even be part of the final collage. Most of the time, I try to “say” something important via my art, but other times it’s just about doodling.
Q: What are your influences?
A: I got into collage because I loved Julien Pacaud’s illustrations, but it was Kieron “Cur3es” Cropper who became my main influence. The guy’s a genius. Bryan “Glass Planet” Olson and David Delruelle are also influences of mine. From the older artists, I’d have to say, Magritte. However, I collage on many different styles: from “pop” to dada, and from modern illustrations to traditional surrealism. I don’t believe that artists should “find their style”. That’s artistic death. If I have a style, it’s probably some “meta” aspect of it (e.g. the sarcasm that I usually employ in my collages), rather than something visual.
