The Artist Behind Hoboken’s Britney Spears’ Collage Installation – hobokengirl.com

If youve taken a stroll through Elysian Park recently, you may have noticed a new piece of art a collage of Britney Spears. Similarly, if youve walked up Newark Street, you may have noticed a collage of Marilyn Monroe. That is the work of Brittany DiMauro, a New York City-based collage artist who uses discarded materials to create intricate visual works that delve into complex issues regarding the malleability of the mind and its exploitation through the advent of celebrity, consciously using iconography sourced from both contemporary and ancient works of art to further evidence and support this theory, as Brittany describes it. Read on to learn more about Brittany, the Hoboken installation, and more.

The New England-born artist spent her youth in the eighties and nineties as an outsider in an insidiously homogeneous environment where they learned early on to rely on resourcefulness and creativity as a means of personal liberation and relatability to the world, Brittany told Hoboken Girl.

Brittany made the journey to New York in 2006 and worked in various roles of film production, which led her to ultimately deciding that the pathway to purpose was through total commitment to the materialization of her own works of art.

Paper and glue are the only materials used in her work, with the exception of the Canvas Series. More recently, Brittany has brought her work outside, enlarging the sizing of her collages and through the method of wheatpasting. Brittanys work can currently be seen in Hoboken and Brooklyn.

Brittany DiMauro: I think my love for art is something I was born with and was fostered by my mothers relatives. I spent a lot of time with them as a kid and now I see that they were preparing me for this work. My Grandmother was a painter, sculptor, and the eldest sister of the Maysles Brothers. My Aunt is a painter and mixed media artist, and my Grandfather was a brilliant scholar and activist. I remember him asking me once do you know about Utopia? and proceeds to explain the principles of an alternate reality with true liberty and equal rights. I think they were kind of teaching me how to speak this language that can be interpreted universally, and to me, that is what art is: a language with infinite dialects that communicates the human experience across space and time and ideally improves that experience.

BD: I love making collage art, Ive always had a thing for paper. I remember ripping out magazine pages as a kid and agonizing over which side I wanted to hang on the wall. Collage is just now moving from the category of craft into an accepted form of art, but something I love about this medium is the accessibility; you do not need anything more than a glue stick and a blade. I would say ninety percent of my materials are books and magazines that have been discarded, sometimes I will have to print out an image but I keep that to an absolute minimum. I have been fortunate to receive a couple of donations of magazine collections and thats always huge for me, especially knowing that someones collection is not going into the trash, it has great value to me. I choose the locations for my paste-ups mostly based on the color of the wall and there are other factors at play, as safety and visibility.

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BD: Some celebrities I do choose deliberately based on my perspective on that particular individual and the commentary I wish to communicate through the collage. Others are more whimsical and have a lot less thought put into them. But those are some of my favorites, like Pam After The Storm for example. I made that one on the fly as I was pulling imagery for another piece. Once she was done, it was like wow, this one is really saying something andthat is what is so magical about what I do. Out of all these thousands of magazine and book pages, a new story emerges and that process really does feel guided by something larger than myself at times.

BD: I started exploring this side of the river because my partner grew up around here, and it turns out some of my ancestors worked here in Hoboken in the twenties after immigrating from Sicily, so that has been really special. I love the waterfront and that area, in particular, is a bit less developed and has a transitional vibe that is pretty interesting. There is a cute skate park around there and theres also that creepy a$$ cave!

BD: My goals for this year are to show in a gallery, do some more commissions, and to do a piece on a much larger scale like the beloved Bowie piece by Eduardo Kobra. Ive also developed a program for students who want to practice collage art ,which will be available on my website this fall. It is completely free and participation is totally unconditional; its really meantas a supplement to children who are interested in the arts since they have been so deeply and terribly cut out of the education system.

BD: I am tremendously inspired by works of antiquity and by works from the time of the Renaissance, which feel more relevant than ever somehow seven centuries later. I learn so much just from going through my materials and I think there is something to this, its exciting to learn about things one is naturally drawn toward. I try to do as much reading as I can about some of my other interests like travel and mysticism. But I think more than anything I aminspired by random people in the world in moments of passing and by the thought of a future where every single person feels safe and in control of their destiny.

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BD: A typical day for me begins with lots of coffee and my pets harassing me down to my last nerve. Once they settle, I usually like to do some collaging at my desk; I find that my mind is the most open to creative energy during the morning hours. It kind of depends on what I have going on, commissions always get priority so my day might involve a trip to the post office. If I have time, I like to get out on my bike in the afternoon. I have a little setup in my backpack so I go around exploring, and when I find the right spot Ill put up a piece of art.

BD: The highlight of my career/life so far has been this present moment, to be honest. Its kind of a weird/gross thing to say after the hell storm of 2020 but I know I am not alone in this notion and that there was a collective change that occurred and is still in progress. Ive tried and failed at many things over the years, but lately, it feels like everything I learned from all that has led me to collage as street art and this place where Ive been able to create from an authentic point of view.

For magazine/book donations, or if you own the rights to an interior or exterior wall and want to have it turned into art, email Brittany at eternalpossessions@gmail.com.

To stay up to date with Brittanys art, follow her on Instagram at@eternalpossessions and visit her website.

Victoria is HG's Associate Editor and Social Media Coordinator for the Hoboken Historical Museum + Fire Department Museum. She is a fourth-generation Hoboken native, BNR in the Mile Square, and Jersey City. Through playing softball in town for fourteen years, playing the trumpet for the Hoboken High School Redwings Band, and graduating from New Jersey City University, these two cities have a special place in her heart. When she isnt Style Assisting or volunteering at Symposia Bookstore, shes exploring everything the Concrete Jungle has to offer. You can catch her at art exhibitions, local festivities, traveling, diving into a new book, thrifting, or indulging in some form of arts and crafts.

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The Artist Behind Hoboken's Britney Spears' Collage Installation - hobokengirl.com