$AVEME’s latest print release is a deep dive into his way of seeing the world through cut-up fragments, reconstructed narratives, and creative chaos. Known for his work in music, his approach to collage follows the same ethos: breaking things apart and piecing them back together in ways that make you look (or listen) twice.

“I think music sampling has given me a different perspective on the art of collaging,” $AVEME says. “It’s always been so fascinating to me to deconstruct images and sounds and rearrange and manipulate the parts to create something completely new. Although there are limitations, those limitations allow a space for ingenuity and creativity that I don’t get from other art forms. Sometimes those endless possibilities can hinder your creative vision. Whereas having a full picture, or a piece of audio, gives you almost like a head start. You get to see and hear the original creative process and almost collaborate with them without them being there. It’s a beautiful thing.”

That way of thinking is all over his latest album, Exalted (released February 2025), a collection of 10 tracks that feel like sonic collages, lo-fi, nostalgic hip-hop, and rap experiments that pull from different places but land in perfect harmony. It’s the same energy he brings to his visual work, cutting up imagery from old books and archives and layering them to create pieces that feel familiar but slightly off in the best way. His work often plays with themes of history, social struggle, and the way the past echoes into the present.

Collage, for $AVEME, is a way of processing the world—of taking things that already exist and seeing what else they can become. There’s something in that process that feels both spontaneous and considered, like a constant push and pull between chance and control.