OM.2026.005 - Berni Stephanus - Switzerland

OM.2026.005 - collage on paper - 15.5 x 10.25 inches - Berni Stephanus - Switzerland

This is the first of 17 works seen on this inventory blog contributed to the Museum of Collage Archives in 2026 so a good place to put a bio for Stephanus.

Berni Stephanus (born 1941) is a German-born contemporary collage artist. He is recognized for his commitment to artistic freedom, a daily collage practice, and a deliberate rejection of the commercial art market. [1]

Early Life and Education

Stephanus was born in Hannover, Germany, into a German-Jewish family. He began painting at age 15 before moving to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1960 to attend art school. Over the years, he sustained himself through diverse employment - working as a vendor, a printer, and eventually an art teacher and coach. Seeking deeper academic context for his visual observations, he also pursued university studies in linguistics and art history. [, 2]

Shift from Painting to Collage

Though he trained as a painter, Stephanus first experimented with collage in 1967 as a form of political protest and as a creative response to creative blocks in front of the canvas. For several decades, his paintings were structurally based on these experimental paper arrangements. Over time, he grew to favor the immediacy of the medium. He gradually pulled away from the canvas around 2000 and completely abandoned painting by 2009 to focus entirely on paper and digital composites. [, 2]

Philosophy and Creative Process

Stephanus views the act of combining everyday imagery as an accessible, libertarian act requiring nothing more than old magazines, scissors, and a glue stick. According to his artist profile featured in the Kolaj Magazine Artist Directory, his creative methodology relies heavily on: 

• Strict Improvisation: He builds each piece spontaneously, reactively composing around a singular focal photograph or fragment.
• Time-Limitation: He challenges himself to finish a personal, finished composition within a strict two-hour window.
• Digital Blow-Ups: Instead of selling original physical layers, he fulfills interest in his work by ordering large-scale digital prints of his completed pieces. [1, 2]

Independence and Current Practice

Stephanus operates entirely outside what he calls the "art circus," deliberately turning down commissions, prizes, and formal representation to maintain absolute creative autonomy. While he has held selected gallery exhibitions across Switzerland, his modern work functions as a personal daily ritual. Now retired from teaching, he splits his time between Geneva and France, producing daily collages, shooting street photography, and occasionally routing new digital archives to institutions like the Museum of Collage Archives. [1, 3, 4]