Paper
210 x 297 mm
Ryan Mueller
Ryan Mueller is a jeweler, designer, and brand builder whose collage practice found him as much as he found it. Based in Melbourne, his work pulls exclusively from pre-1980s print, museological imagery, ballet, the male figure, and a hint of Americana, arranged with the precision of someone who has always seen the world through collage.
In the Words of the Artist
Paper, stickers
297 x 420 mm
Collage has always been a medium of interest to me. Ever since I was a teenager, I would collage various arrangements of fashion and landscapes, and I really rode the Tumblr wave of digital collage. Now, as an adult, I find myself back here, taking it seriously and genuinely enjoying it as my art form.
Not long ago, I had a realization as to why I associate with collage so much: I saw it as a way to arrange all of my visual and personal interests and experiences into a single presentation. I see collage as a conduit to articulate experiences and feelings I have. It’s the perfect way to say something without explicitly saying anything at all. To show where you kissed someone all over their body, using only star stickers and an image of a marble statue. My collages are an arrangement of many things; far more than just paper.
I am a curious and observant person, and I ultimately see the world through collage. I strive to surround myself with beauty in all forms, and the medium of collage is the perfect vessel to articulate that. There are great advantages to being able to endlessly recontextualise.
Paper
210 x 297 mm
I am finding it to show up more organically now. I never started making collage for it to sit as seriously as I wanted my other work to appear; however, organically, it did. There are obvious throughlines in my material and my influence, and whether that exists in collage or jewellery, my reference point is often the same. I am starting to realise it is an important ancillary output for all my work. I never really claimed to be an ‘artist,’ and I still don't entirely align with the title, a designer, yes. I have, however, quietly accepted the title of ‘collage artist’.
I think the subjects of my collages say a lot about my interests. I only use material that I personally align with. Whether it is museological imagery, fashion, ballet, science, space, beautiful men, or a hint of Americana, there is a clear criterion to the way I work. I think this anchors me and my approach to any project because I trust my vision and reference point. I also only work with black and white imagery, so I am constantly looking through books and magazines with pictures printed prior to the rise of colour printing. This is another criteria for my work, and ultimately, only things printed prior to the 80s make the cut. There is something so pulling to me about really explicit, almost educational imagery from publications of this era.
Paper
297 x 420 mm
Paper, stickers, dry cleaning ticket
297 x 420 mm
I mean, to any gay man, Tom of Finland is kind of a fixture in one form or another, so I have been watching the space in LA ever since I was a teenager. Tom’s work was always rebellious, and even now, in a contemporary setting, it still is. It’s boisterous, it’s fantasy, and it's classic - all things I want from my own life.
I think without gay and queer artists such as Tom of Finland and collage artists like Robert Mapplethorpe and Robert Rauschenberg, I would struggle to articulate my sexuality in art. There is something so explicit (in both senses of the word) about all of their work that I really resonate with. There is a classicism that exists in the work of that period, and I am partial to a bit of escapism.
Paper
297 x 420 mm
Fashion. I have always been tethered to fashion, and I really think there are a lot of similarities between clothing and collage. It’s an arrangement of various pieces that result in a single image or outfit. Fashion moves season to season, always creating something new, while referencing something existing. I aim to use more contemporary and original imagery in my practice because I can now trust my codes will always stay deeply rooted in my practice, much like a fashion house.
Paper, masking tape
297 x 420 mm
About the Artist
Ryan Mueller is a collage artist and designer specializing in object design and contemporary jewelry. His practice draws on the traditions of ancient craft and the enduring pull of human curiosity. Working across mediums such as lighting, gold and silversmithing, collage, and sculpture, Mueller engages deeply with pure materiality, and the human ability to endlessly reframe and recontextulize beauty.
Alongside his material practice, Mueller brings a considered approach to brand experience, crafting visual identities and brand worlds that are immersive, intuitive, and strategically aligned. His work represents an evolving body of concepts, curation, and collected forms, unified by a commitment to thoughtful design and purposeful making. His work has been featured in publications such as Vogue and The Australian Financial Review.
For Your Viewing Pleasure
What to watch, read, and experience, as curated by the Collé team.
JONAH SAMSON is a self-taught photographer and artist who transforms found imagery and natural elements into tactile, dreamlike works. By combining vintage photographs with handmade processes—like cyanotype, salt printing, and fabric binding—he creates narrative-rich prints and books that feel both absurd and deeply grounded in place.
JEFFERSON FOUQUET is a Paris-based collagist and floral stylist whose work operates at the intersection of queer identity and tactile beauty. Represented by Marlowe Paris, his practice weaves together material sensuality and cultural community.
POSH ARTHUR is a collage artist whose work explores gay desire, seduction, and the male gaze. Mining vintage imagery and queer visual culture, his compositions are charged with intimacy, wit, and an unapologetic celebration of homosexual beauty.
PATRICK WAUGH provides creative direction and graphic design for fashion and lifestyle consumer brands. Working in print and digital media across multiple platforms, services include branding, typography, video, and collage.
MICHAEL YOUNG constructs photographs from vintage gay pornographic calendars, layering and excising figures to reveal what was once hidden. His work transforms archival desire into a meditation on the closet, shame, and queer self-recognition.
Out and About
What to watch, read, and experience, as curated by the Collé team.
▼ WATCH
In Conversation: On Tom of Finland
At David Kordanksy in 2023, with Nayland Blake, Durk Dehner, Claire Gilman, and Brontez Purnell, moderated by Julie Niemi.
▼ WATCH
Tom of Finland - MOCA U
Famed erotic artist Tom of Finland made as much of an impact on the lives of individual men as he did on the history of masculine representation. On a palm tree-lined street in Echo Park sits the Tom of Finland Foundation, a site that testifies to both personal and historical memory.
▼ LISTEN
Kingo Hamada — midnight cruisin'
Japanese city pop at its most cinematic, Hamada's fourth record moves like a late-night drive with the windows down, equal parts velvet groove and urban melancholy.
