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
EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS
A CONTRESENS
solo exhibition
Les Passantes, Paris, France
May 10 - June 10, 2023
NOT JUST: A World Collage Day Exhibition group exhibition
Maude Kerns art center, Eugene, Oregon, USA
May 12 - June 9, 2023
Hommage à Rachid Taha
curation
Centre Anim’ Rachid Taha, Paris, France
May 9 - June 3, 2023
D.Rad - Complicating the Narrative (In a time of false Simplicity)
workshop
Espace Canopy, Paris, France
April 12, 2023
︎ D.Rad
PARIS COLLAGE ENSEMBLE
group exhibition
Maison des Ensembles, Paris, France
February 24 - March 24, 2023
COUPÉ COLLÉ
group exhibition & curation
Centre Anim’ Rachid Taha, Paris, France
January 30 - March 2, 2023
LAND OF SUNSHINE
solo exhibition
Centre Anim’ Rachid Taha, Paris, France
January 3-28, 2023
ART EN FÊTE - Prix du Jury “La Lumière”
group exhibition
Le Befroi, Montrouge, France
December 15-21, 2022
LA LUCARNE DES ÉCRIVAINS
exhibition with Isabelle Milkoff
La Lucarne des Écrivains, Paris, France
May 2-30, 2022
ART ET ARTISANAT
group exhibition
Le Befroi, Montrouge, France
February 7-13, 2020
CANCIONES PARA RECORDAR
group exhibition with MUJERES QUE CORTAN Y PEGAN
Sala Siroco, Madrid, Spain
January 2020
PRESS
MONTROUGE MAG
Rendez-vous avec les étoiles d’Art en fête
February 2023
CONTEMPORARY COLLAGE MAGAZINE #15
Interview
December 2022
FLOW 10/2022
In de Collagebanken
October 2022
TRAVELGLOBE #97:
I Collage di Petra Zehner
October 2022
CONTEMPORARY COLLAGE MAGAZINE #12
Paris Collage Collective
September 2022
/DRI:M/SPACE ISSUE 01
Blow Your Covers
March 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
ONLINE COURSES
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