Lucy Sante Presents Collage Exhibitions in Manhattan Drawing from Historical Archives

Writer and historian Lucy Sante is currently showcasing her collage artwork in two solo exhibitions in Manhattan. 'Two Strikes on a Snow Man' is on view at Picture Theory gallery in Chelsea, while 'Knots' is displayed at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in Upper Manhattan. Sante, renowned for her 1991 book 'Low Life' which examined New York's Gilded Age through archival materials, creates these works using vintage materials collected over decades. Her source materials include yellowed periodicals, postcards from the interwar period, Montgomery Ward catalogs from the Depression era, and 1950s magazines, which she sources from flea markets, collector fairs, European antiques markets, and online auctions. In a recent interview at her Kingston, New York home, Sante discussed her artistic process of transforming historical visual records into new compositions. The exhibitions highlight her long-standing practice of working with found materials to create visual art alongside her literary career. This dual creative output demonstrates how historical documentation can be repurposed for contemporary artistic expression.