{"id":73678,"date":"2025-05-04T11:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T11:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/73678\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T11:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T11:03:12","slug":"discarded-packaging-and-labels-find-new-life-in-kelly-kozmas-vibrant-patchworks-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/73678\/","title":{"rendered":"Discarded Packaging and Labels Find New Life in Kelly Kozma&#8217;s Vibrant Patchworks \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From dozens of Chiquita banana labels to toothpaste packaging to color-coded quality control stickers, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/kellykozma\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kelly Kozma<\/a> finds beauty in everyday ephemera. \u201cPiece by piece, she saves any colorful or textured box that she encounters, even though most are expected to be discarded after their original use,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paradigmarts.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Paradigm Gallery + Studio<\/a>, which opens the artist\u2019s solo exhibition Watch Me Backflip this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Kozma takes an archival and interdisciplinary approach to working with numerous found materials, combining a variety of media into two-dimensional wall works, expansive textile-inspired assemblages, and voluminous suspended installations. \u201cWatch Me Backflip\u00a0embraces ideas of reusing material, interconnectedness, and the significance of the smallest interaction on a much larger environment,\u201d says an exhibition statement. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"617\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/kozma-3-960x617.jpg\" alt=\"an installation view of a gallery with small artworks on the wall to the left and a suspended textile piece on the right, made from tiny pieces of plastic and paper repurposed into a colorful textile\" class=\"wp-image-454672\"  \/>Installation view of \u2018Watch Me Backflip\u2019 at Paradigm Gallery + Studio<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIguana &amp; Myrrh\u201d and \u201cMagma &amp; Reef\u201d mark the largest compositions Kozma has created. The former spans 22 feet in circumference and comprises more than 30,000 hand-stitched circles cut from a wide variety of greeting cards, found packaging, and other colorful materials. Committed to a minimal-waste practice, the artist incorporates scraps and loose threads into a number of accompanying works in Watch Me Backflip.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs she stitches these lovingly collected pieces, Kozma creates connections between the people in her life and the objects she interacts with, inspiring mindfulness against overconsumption and emotional apathy,\u201d the gallery says.<\/p>\n<p>Watch Me Backflip opens today and continues through June 1 in Philadelphia. See more on the artist\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/kellykozma\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"964\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/kozma-8-960x964.jpg\" alt=\"a small, square artwork with brass corners and a circular composition in the middle made of quality control stickers arranged in a colorful pattern\" class=\"wp-image-454677\"  \/>\u201cI See Your Beauty\u201d (2025), process control patches and acrylic on panel<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/kozma-10-960x1440.jpg\" alt=\"a suspended installation of numerous colorful bead-like pieces complement a number of smaller wall-hung works also made with colorful draping strands of found material\" class=\"wp-image-454682\"  \/>Installation view of \u2018Watch Me Backflip\u2019 at Paradigm Gallery + Studio<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"535\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/kozma-2-960x535.jpg\" alt=\"a detail of an artwork comprising cloth made from woven and connected pieces of plastic and paper, creating colorful patterns\" class=\"wp-image-454671\"  \/>Detail of \u201cIguana &amp; Myrrh\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/kozma-4-960x1440.jpg\" alt=\"an installation view of a suspended sculpture in a gallery, looking upward, comprising numerous strands of colorful beds\" class=\"wp-image-454673\"  \/>Installation view of \u2018Watch Me Backflip\u2019 at Paradigm Gallery + Studio<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"954\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/kozma-9-960x954.jpg\" alt=\"a small, square artwork with brass corners and a circular composition in the middle made of banana stickers arranged in a colorful pattern\" class=\"wp-image-454678\"  \/>\u201cPeels So Good\u201d (2025), banana stickers and acrylic on panel<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"651\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/kozma-1-960x651.jpg\" alt=\"a detail of an artwork comprising cloth made from woven and connected pieces of plastic and paper, creating colorful patterns\" class=\"wp-image-454670\"  \/>Detail of \u201cIguana &amp; Myrrh\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/kozma-7-960x1280.jpeg\" alt=\"a white woman with short blonde hair and a yellow top works on a large, colorful wall installation made from found pieces of paper and plastic\" class=\"wp-image-454676\"  \/>The artist working on the installation of \u201cMagma &amp; Reef\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do stories and artists like this matter to you?<\/strong> Become a <a href=\"https:\/\/colossal.local\/members\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"118516\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Colossal Member<\/a> now, and support independent arts publishing.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Hide advertising<\/li>\n<li>Save your favorite articles<\/li>\n<li>Get 15% off in the <a href=\"https:\/\/colossal.shop\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Colossal Shop<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Receive members-only newsletter<\/li>\n<li>Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From dozens of Chiquita banana labels to toothpaste packaging to color-coded quality control stickers, Kelly Kozma finds beauty&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,4022,77,25925,36504,36505,10688,11102,27343,34942,16,15,36506],"class_list":{"0":"post-73678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-installation","13":"tag-kelly-kozma","14":"tag-pattern","15":"tag-recycling","16":"tag-sculpture","17":"tag-textiles","18":"tag-trash","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-upcycling"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114449233097706245","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}