ABOUT ME
My name is Petra. I am an East-West German graphic artist and writer.
After many years of a rather nomadic life, jumping back and forth between Germany, the UK, France, Singapore and Malaysia, I now work and live in Paris. I spend most of my days designing things, recycling images, and stringing words into sentences that are often quite elaborate and much longer than necessary or reasonable. Whatever time is left, I spend on books.
A few years ago, I re-discovered collage [the above-mentioned image recycling] as the art form that lets me combine and express all the things that interest me: images and words, old and new, good and bad, fact and fiction, hit and miss, and over time I developed a style that combines and expresses analog and digital.
In my work I deal with the visually oversaturated world I live in, and the over- as well as under-stimulation that comes with it. It’s my way of appropriating imagery that I most of the time, given the choice, wouldn’t have looked at in the first place.
I listen to a lot of music while I work, hence the music references everywhere. I love summer and the beach, hence the palm trees everywhere. And I have two pet bunnies called Pepper & Dot, hence the bunny pictures everywhere.
Last but by no means least, currently mainly and above all, I'm the founder and creative director of Paris Collage Collective, an international collage artist community that hopes to encourage creative expression, exchange and collaboration.
Please say hi.
ELSEWHERE
BOOKS
COOLAGE
2022
COLLAGE CARE
2021
PLAY AND RECORD
2021
EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS
PARIS COLLAGE ENSEMBLE
group exhibition
Maison des Ensembles, Paris
February 24 - March 24, 2023
COUPÉ COLLÉ
group exhibition & curation
Centre Anim’ Rachid Taha, Paris
January 30 -February 18, 2023
LAND OF SUNSHINE
solo exhibition
Centre Anim’ Rachid Taha, Paris
January 3-28, 2023
ART EN FÊTE - Prix du Jury “La Lumière”
group exhibition
Le Befroi, Montrouge
December 15-21, 2022
LA LUCARNE DES ÉCRIVAINS
exhibition with Isabelle Milkoff
La Lucarne des Écrivains, Paris
May 2-30, 2022
ART ET ARTISANAT
group exhibition
Le Befroi, Montrouge
February 7-13, 2020
CANCIONES PARA RECORDAR
group exhibition with MUJERES QUE CORTAN Y PEGAN
Sala Siroco, Madrid
January 2020
MEDIA
CONTEMPORARY COLLAGE MAGAZINE #15
Interview
December 2022
TRAVELGLOBE #97:
I Collage di Petra Zehner
October 2022
CONTEMPORARY COLLAGE MAGAZINE #12
Paris Collage Collective
September 2022
EUROPEANA
Be Inspired
2022
MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND TE PAPA TONGAREWA
‘It is a very accessible artform’: Talking collage with Paris Collage Collective
November 2021
WHITEPAPER BY
Petra Zehner y su musa desconocida
October 2021
ESTHETIC LENSE
Creative Quarantine
October 2020
ART OF COLLAGE
Interview
December 2019
PIDGEONHOLES
TWO POEMS by Jack B. Bedell
May 2019
THE CONGLOMERATE
Conglomeration No. 7
2019
PIDGEONHOLES
Two Faces or a Candlestick
December 2018
SOCIETY6
The Friday Five
December 2018
DOMESTIKA
Artistic Mixed-media Collages
A course for anyone who is curious about collages, as well as for those who want to explore combining digital and traditional illustration techniques, including illustrators, artists, and designers.
2022