Cut Me Up Issue 5: Envisioning Utopia, curated by Valerie Hegarty, is a selection of 18 artworks that unearth optimistic possibilities from yesterday’s shattered world. These artists consider contemporary problems and create imaginative solutions, endeavoring to find the seeds for a hopeful tomorrow.

“For Cut Me Up Issue 5, artists tackled a range of contemporary problems such as climate change, the housing crisis, mental health, the novel corona virus, food distribution and spiritual bankruptcy in order to create imaginative solutions that are ripe with optimistic possibility. These dynamic collages of future utopias hint at balanced and ideal worlds where nature is protected and flourishing, housing expands exponentially, working systems cleanse resources, a vaccine is discovered and celebrated and Adam and Eve return to make a new choice: the tree of life. The artists’ collages of utopian worlds illustrate that the future’s solutions already exist at our fingertips, if their constituent parts can be salvaged, repaired and recombined from our current world’s ruin.” Valerie Hegarty, curator.

Curatorial prompts for Issue 5 artists:

• Use recent media that describes a contemporary problem.
• Use any methods and/or materials that you associate with positivity and healing.
• Create a composition that expresses realism.
• All eligible submissions must incorporate some portion or portions of Cut Me Up: Issue 4.

Valerie Hegarty’s original curatorial call for Issue 4 can be found here.

Issue 5 Cover Art:
Michelle Bowers

Issue 5 Artists:
Loren Abbate
Michelle Bowers
MJ Connors Davision
Paul Elter
Carrie Forman
Luciana Frigerio
Ellen Haines
Chad Martinez
Andrea Myers
W. David Powell
Billy Renkl
Laurent Seljan
Lydia Selk
Lisa Sheets
Rachel Singel
Maureen Wiliams
Al Wong
Holly Wong

All of the 55 response artworks made by 42 artists for Cut Me Up Issue 5: Envisioning Utopia can be found here.